DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN NARUTO. If I did then it wouldn't be as awesome and loved.

Hello. Before you start reading I would like to thank you for reading this and hopefully you will give me some constructive feedback since this is my first SHORT fanfic involving ShikaXIno. It's basically a small side project of my almost complete TMM story. Enjoy. :D!

Also, this takes place before the TimeSkip (AKA: Naruto Shippuden). Maybe I'll do one of those stories later, but I'd rather not have people all spoiler whiney.

The Troublesome Boar and Lazy Fawn

Trees rustled in the breeze letting the leaves to slide off and dance in the wind. The sun was shining brightly as the soft white clouds cluttered the sky while coasting by. The only voices that could be heard in the forest were the ones of birds and other small creatures around. These were the moments that were important. The ones were no one was around, no pressure, no missions, and no drags. It was just the soft grass, the tree trunk, Shikamaru, and the clouds. He decided to take a day off from the hustle and bustle of the village mainly to avoid doing any bothersome work. It had been pretty quiet lately but he could never be too careful.

Letting out a content sigh, he kept his arms behind his head while sitting against the tree watching the clouds scuttle by. They could go anywhere they wanted anytime. They had no worries and no responsibilities. All he ever wanted to become was an average ninja then get married and lead an average life while having two kids.

For a moment Temari ran through his mind. His stomach became tense; there was something weird between the two of them ever since their match a while back. He wasn't sending her any weird signals; they were more coming from her direction towards him. Usually when this happened he chose to ignore it but with her things seemed slightly different.

The warm breeze returned and his eyelids began to become heavy. Now he found himself beginning to drift to sleep. Sleep was one of the many things he enjoyed and one of the things he was good at except he could never seem to get enough of it. Letting out a yawn he took a deep breath and fell asleep.

Another breeze blew by him as he opened his eye lazily after a while. Still groggy from his nap he stretched looking at his surroundings. A happy humming was coming from somewhere around him. The sun was shining in his eyes so he couldn't make out anything around him. Shikamaru put up his arm to guard himself from the sun only to see the sun shining down on a field of flowers a little down below him. There was a person down there with flowers and their petals dancing around their figure. The grass was long and covered up to the figures knees.

Now he was becoming curious and usually he would just shrug off whoever the person was but today he felt he should investigate it. It's not like he had anything better to do. Slowly he crept down the hill planning out every move in his head beforehand just in case. The humming obviously belonged to a female. If it was Temari then he was going to head back. Keeping low to the ground he peered over a flower bush.

Well he was right about the figure being a female. He let out a sigh to see that all the planning he had done in his mind was only going to be wasted. It was only Ino…

"What a drag," he mumbled watching her confidently picking up flowers and placing them in a basket only stopping to sniff a couple. "I was hoping to be the only person who knew about this place."

In his mind he began to fight with himself on whether he should say hi to her but finally told himself he wouldn't. Instead he sat there watching her dancing among the meadow enjoying the nice weather. Her hair had grown a considerable length from her fight with Sakura when she chopped it all off to catch Sakura in a trap. It wasn't back to normal length yet but it whipped around in the breeze slightly. Her arm warmers were off letting the sun hit her skin on her normally pale arms. Maybe she was hoping to color herself or something.

Shikamaru now couldn't help but watch her, she was now intriguing him. It was like seeing her in a completely different light outside of the missions, the team, and being a ninja. This time she wasn't drabbling on about Sasuke, telling Chouji he was a wide as a truck, or being arrogant about how great a kunoichi she is. Now she was just natural and enjoying the simple things in life. His stomach fluttered for a brief moment and he instantly grabbed it.

"I must be hungry or something," he muttered to himself in wonder. It wasn't the normal hunger fluttering. This was a new feeling, and it bared the same resemblance to the irritation he felt when Ino would go on about Sasuke.

Ino turned around and started walking towards the flower bush where Shikamaru was located. Now he was in panic, if she found him spying on her he was done for. This was a drag, she would punch him and he would be stuck having to explain himself. Where was he strategy skills when he needed them? His mind was drawing a complete blank. All he could think of to do was curl up into a ball, so he did.

Her footsteps drew closer as he heard her rustling through the bush. He closed his eyes and prayed not to be discovered.

"What the…" her high pitched voice squeaked as she lifted some branches out of the way to discover Shikamaru in a ball. "Shikamaru…?"

Shikamaru looked up with an innocent look on his face to see Ino stand there wide eyed in wonderment trying to piece together why he would be around. For a couple of seemingly awkward moments they stared at each other him avoiding eye contact while she stared blankly at him. Finally the look of anger appeared on her face as she clutched the flowers in her fist.

"What are you doing here?! Are you spying on me or something? God, not only are you lazy, but now you're a weird perv?" she yelled grabbing him by the collar and lifting him to his feet.

"Um… I was just passing by?" he answered sheepishly trying to keep his balance on his feet.

There was no denying the fact he had been caught watching her gather flowers and Ino was such a touchy person that he knew she would blow the situation slightly out of proportion. For a moment after saying those words, he made eye contact with her deep blue eyes and felt a blush rise to his cheeks. She instantly looked away and released her grip on his collar. That moment he could've sworn that he saw her blushing as well but maybe it was a trick of the light. He couldn't place his finger on why he was blushing at this moment anyways. Running his fingers over his cheeks he deducted that it must have been the sun or something making his face somewhat warm.

"Well," she began while she was turned around putting her hands confidently on her hips, "Now that you're here, you might as well help me gather some flowers for my parent's shop since you did spy on me and all."

This was odd, Shikamaru could hear a hint of uncertainty and what seemed like tenderness in her voice like she really wanted him to stay around or something. He let out a sigh and looked back up at the clouds scattering across the sky, some of them seemed to have merged together. It's not like he had anything better to do and now he felt like he wanted to spend some time with her. Usually he never got to say a word to her because she was always tearing up Chouji for eating so much.

"Umm, okay," he answered watching her pick up a couple of red colored flowers and placing them delicately in her basket.

Now he was trying to figure out which flowers he was supposed to pick up. Ino probably knew all the names and types of these flowers but he never put any energy or care into discovering the different between a blade of grass or a tulip. He scanned the area trying to plan out his next moves in his head but he couldn't think of a plan or spending time with Ino. They were both so quiet and there was no talking between them. Silently she picked flowers and he watched her from the corners of his eyes. The fluttering came back to his stomach. Why couldn't he stop watching her? Even worse he kept thinking about her.

The silence was killing him; he had to do something to break it. Quickly Shikamaru picked up the nearest flower and walked over to where Ino was.

"Hear… you… go," he reluctantly mumbled as his cheeks turned slightly red and he held out the flower he picked for her.

"What the heck is that," she commented giving Shikamaru a very confused look. "That's a very… sickly looking flower."

Shikamaru paused for a moment trying to register what she was talking about and then peered down at the flower in his hand. His cheeks became even redder when he realized he picked the most pitiful flower that Ino had probably laid her eyes on. The dandelion was drooped over, missing some of its petals, and even becoming some odd brown color at some places.

What a drag…. His first attempt to impress a girl and he blew it without using any of his energy. Usually he just blew off that sort of thing when girls were obviously interested in him. It's not like he really even cared. Now he was suddenly finding him to try to impress one of his own teammates. He would probably have a better chance with Chouji.

He found himself doing what he usually did with the same apathetic expression on his face, he shrugged off the situation. This time it was all a mask, he felt slightly embaressed and began to walk away from Ino with his cheeks still glowing with a red tint.

Ino watched Shikamaru as he began to walk away. Biting her lip she gazed down at the flower that he had picked and handed to her. Her stomach fluttered as she bent down and picked it up. She twirled it in her fingers watching him slowly walk away. Why had Shikamaru even bothered to do that? There were so many rumors going around that he had a thing for Temari, but she brushed those off trying to ignore what was going on around her. Instead of acting somewhat jealous all she did was pump up her act for Sasuke which made her feel awful.

Now she was watching Shikamaru walk away even after he showed her his version of what seemed to be kindness. It seemed like he had always been there for her in some way when they were teammates and now friends. Maybe she had been foolish in wasting so much of her time on Sasuke when it seemed there was someone waiting just in front of her for him to notice her.

Wait… maybe he didn't feel the same way. Maybe she was just getting ahead of herself and he was just trying to help her pick flowers in his normal lazy-ass ways. Now she was confused, but she didn't want to end up getting hurt. She looked up to see Shikamaru beginning to descend down a hill away from her. This seemed to be her moment.

"Shikamaru…" she stammered as she began to run after him. This was no time for her to be shy. She had never been shy before, why were things becoming different? "Shikamaru!"

Her pace began quickening as her shoes pounded against the soft grass and flowers around her. The breeze was blowing her hair in her face as the figure of Shikamaru became closer and her stomach fluttered. Clenching the flower in her hand she had to catch up with him.

"Shikamaru!" she shouted again urgently.

Shikamaru paused for a moment and listened again as Ino's voice called his name from behind of him. Turning around he saw her sprinting towards him and he watched her keeping his hands in her pockets. His normally apathetic face began to create a small smile. He thought he had blown it, but her running after him either meant she was going to punch him or talk to him rationally.

When Ino came closer the small smile on Shikamaru's face sent a warm feeling through her body not caused by the sun's heat. A smile spread across her face as she drew near to him. She was so close to him when something happened, she felt herself begin to fall forward. A log had gotten in her way causing her to trip over it. Now she was falling forward about to collide with Shikamaru.

His eyes widened as he opened her arms trying to catch her as she slammed into his chest. Realizing she was heavier then she appeared to be Shikamaru wrapped his arms around her as they both began to fall backwards down the grassy hill. Shikamaru squinted as they rolled down the grassy hill; all he could think of was keeping Ino from getting hurt like all the times in battle when he had the urges to protect but lacked the motivation to do anything. Her face was buried in his chest trying to shield herself from the blades of grass and petals dancing around them as they glided down the hill.

Finally they came to a stop but did nothing. They both still had their eyes clutched shut taking in what had just happened. The sounds around them were the same except now there was the sound of a babbling brook accompanied by an annoying bee fluttered past them.

Shikamaru still clutched Ino protectively in his arms as he lay on his side. Opening his eyes slowly he saw Ino's serene face covered in dirt with what appeared to be a smile on her face. Her blue eyes opened and glanced up at Shikamaru. They looked at each other for a moment before she began to burst out giggling.

This confused Shikamaru. The only thought that came to his mind was, "Girls are so weird." Ino stopped giggling and pulled away from Shikamaru's embrace to reveal something enclosed in her hand. They were both kneeling in front of each other as Shikamaru looked down at the sickly dandelion he had given to her; it was safe and sound lying in her palm.

Now what did he do? Romance wasn't exactly his forte. Instead he watched as Ino gazed down at the flower with a sad look on her face. Obviously she was feeling slightly embaressed about something.

"Are the rumors true," she spoke softly still gazing down at the flower, "do you like Temari or something?"

Being shy about this sort of situation wasn't something Shikamaru thought he would ever see Ino do. Now he just had to do something, anything, to reassure her that maybe he liked her. Except it wasn't a maybe thing, but he was never good with feelings and stuff. If Ino liked Sasuke she wouldn't be asking him this, she wouldn't have run after him, and she wouldn't have accepted the lame flower. Now he was sure there was nothing weird in between them.

Instead of using words he picked the flower up out of her hand and lifted up her chin with his hand. Her eyes showed worried and vulnerability along with a slightly adorable blush. Her gaze tried to dance away from his but he kept trying to make eye contact. Shikamaru took the flower and delicately placed it into her hair then looked back down at her.

"What a drag those rumors are," he reassured seeing her eyes light up with some glimmer of hope. It was one of the first genuine smiles that he had given lately and that he had seen Ino given.

His stomach fluttered. Now he was going to do something slightly drastic. Leaning forward slightly he pressed his lips softly against Ino's putting his hand on her cheek. Ino was slightly taken back by his unusual direct behavior but she returned the kiss pressing hers back softly against his closing her eyes. This seemed to be right. They seemed to fit.

Maybe the troublesome boar and the lazy fawn were meant for each other in the end.

(THE END)

Thank you for reading Troublesome Boar and Lazy Fawn. My short fanfic about ShikamaruXIno. This story was me taking a break from writing my other story, A Change of Mew. It was actually a very enojoyable story to write on overcast, Sunday afternoon. Maybe I'll try agains soon.

Any feedback would be lovely. :D!

Hopefully this isn't my last ShikaIno.