Gotcha~

Like every other day, I would go bother the one and only lazy ninja in the village of the leaf but I guess times have changed. I miss watching the clouds with him in the usual spot on the grass field and hear him mumble how troublesome I was.

We don't even see each other more and It all started when the sand nin came to the village more frequent.

"Kiko-chan!" I heard a familiar voice shout out my name, I turn around to see Ino catching up to me along with Sakura. "Come shopping with us for Tenten's party!" Before I could reject them, their grip was already tight around my arms, preventing me from escaping.

We pass several shops and finally I was able to walk freely from their grasp. "I heard from kankuro, that Temari has a crush on Shikamaru." Ino wandered into a random shop and browsed in the dress section.

"Ehh! No way! Shikamaru? But he's so lazy ,I don't think he can even handle a relationship." Sakura walked into the change room with a dress in her hands.

I didn't say I word. Honestly, I didn't know what to say.

I shuffled through a rack of detailed dresses when something caught my eyes. A plain dark green summer dress. "Kiko, you haven't said a word. Are you alright?" Sakura asked from behind the curtains.

Ino's eyes lit up as she checked out the purple dress on the mannequin , "Yeah, you used to be so bubbly and talkative. What happened?"

I shrugged and slipped into the change room beside Sakura and tied on the dress. "I don't know."

Looking into the full length mirror, it had a low cut, showing my fishnet shirt underneath and the dress swayed to my every movement. Then I realized how plain it was but I didn't mind because it was just how Shikamaru Nara would like it. Fixing my black hair and tossing aside, I looked at the price tag and sighed.

"Kiko, come out. We want to see!" Ino pulled the curtain aside the squealed. "You look so cute! You have to buy it!"

Sakura agreed as she went off to pay for her dress and within the moment, a few familiar faces walked in as the bell signaled. It was 'them'.

His lazy eyes looked over at us, seeing Ino fixing my hair a bit more to match with the dress as Sakura greeted the female sand ninja with a few fake smiles.

Ino eyed them, as I turned away to get undressed feeling even more depressed than I couldn't buy the dress.

I could hear their talking loud and clear, "so Shikamaru, you're on a date?" Sakura teased as I tensed up from the other side.

All he replied with was a monotone, "No."

"He's here to help me choose a dress for the party tonight." I could temari shuffle through some dresses before picking one and walking into a change room. "Shika-kun, wait for me alright?"

After that I heard something along the lines of how troublesome shopping was. I let out a snicker and pealed the dress from my skin.

Throughout the next conversation between sakura,ino and shikamaru' I highly doubt they notice me place the dress back in its original place and leave.

All that, without a single word.

It was late afternoon and the sky was turning a vibrant orange and red, I just sat in the grass like the old days and watched the clouds float by. The wind washed over me, bringing back the feelings when I first started cloud gazing.

To be honest, back then I never really paid any attention to the floating white clouds until I met 'him'. The breeze was getting colder and I stood up to leave since without shikamaru, there was nothing else better to do.

And right before my eyes ,stood shikamaru in his usual chuunin vest. His lazy posture with his hands in his pockets and those eyes that looked up at the clouds. I didn't know what to do but look at the grass below as if it was much more interesting and slowly walk away in the direction I came from.

But I something made me stop in my tracks. Was depression holding me back?

"Gotcha." I heard a voice in front of me and a 'poof' behind me.

There was my answer, just shadows.

I was forced to look up, look up at the man I used to be so attached with, so happy with. We just looked at each other for a minute before I decided to break the ice. "Shikamaru-kun , shouldn't you be with Temari?" He shrugged and walked forward, reeling me in with him until we were only a meter apart.

"I came to see you, it's been awhile." He still held the bond between the two of us with his shadow technique.

I sighed , "Let my shadow go, Shikamaru-kun" doing my best to restrain myself from his shadow but obviously I failed to do so.

"Well, if I do, you'll just run away."He scratched the back of his head, and so did i. My fingers tugged on my hair hard, making me twitch in slight pain while pulling a few strands out.

"Shika-kun, look what you made me do!" I pouted a little as he gave in to a little smirk. "And when did you become so persistent?"

"Ever since you started avoiding me." He said with a straight face.

I just narrowed my eyes down at him, "Me? Avoiding you? More like you never had any time to spend with me." I felt this lonely yet burning sensation rise from the pit of my stomach as I remembered the hard times where he always stood side by side with the blond sand ninja and hardly saying a word to me. It hurt so much so I just had to ignore it the best I could by ignoring you , shikamaru . "If only you knew, how painful it was for me when I waited for you at the park for one whole hour so we could spend some time together but no. You turned up at my door the next day saying you were sorry."

Being the only child was hard especially when my own parents were always busy on missions and such, I'm so afraid that one day... they won't come back at all. That day i stood there waiting was humiliating and everyone was also busy, Naruto and Sakura were busy training and finding clues on where-about Sasuke was, Tenten and Neji were always cuddling somewhere and well everyone else was on missions leaving Shikamaru and I in the village along with the sand ninja.

Shikamaru just stood there, with my words hitting him like kunai's as he tried to defend himself. "Don't tell me you forgot, you forgave me."

At that point, I really wanted to give him a real big bitch slap. "Yeah, until I found out that you spent the whole day with Temari and having candle light dinner!" I shouted at him, the tears that began to form on the rims of my eyes and I let them fall. "It's as if you had me replaced..."

I heard him mutter, "What candle light dinner?" He put a finger to his chin and began to think but at the same time, I did so too. "Who told you anyways? Temari is Temari and you are you, no one can replace you."

"Argh, Choji!" I groaned as he finally stopped thinking and laughed. I sniffled and glared. "What?"

"Choji? He can't tell the difference between a BBQ buffet and a candle light dinner! Just because that night the restaurant had a bit of electrical problem and they lit candles. " He took a few steps closer as I did so too and we were almost touching as I could smell his musk scent."Baka, you really believed him." He let out a sigh, released the shadow jutsu and stroked the wet tears aside."You can be so troublesome sometimes." I let out a small smiled as I sniffled once again. "Here, a present."

My eyes lit up, "P-present?" I saw him pull out a bright blue bag from behind his back. (another justu? :O) and placed it in my hands. My heart beat faster as I felt a glint of happiness rise to the surface

He nodded me to open it, "Go on, open it." Which I did and with each second, I felt much happier because I felt like I was special again but this time in a different way. I pulled out a soft material which unfolded along with the wind into a beautiful summer dress that seems somewhat very familiar with the one from the shop. The material was soft and not a wrinkle in sight. "It's simple so it's not as troublesome." Shikamaru smiled as he pulled me into a tight hug.

I closed my eyes and buried my head into the crook of his neck. "I missed you so much, shika-kun." My arms snaked around his neck and held him tighter. "You jerk, I thought you had no more room for me." He pulled away and sighed.

"There's always room for you, and I've been saving you the most space in here." He tapped his head while his other hand held me in his arms.

I snickered along with the pace of the wind, "No, you mean here." I innocently poked at his right chest. Glancing down at the gift, I placed it back into bag, "This cost a fortune, where could you get all this money from?" We began walking through the grass and onto the pavement. All he did was sigh and look up at the sky.

"You really don't want to know. It was really troublesome."

We laughed together, and the emptiness within me was gradually filled with the presence of him. The sun had set and the sky was slowly getting dark. "I'll pick you up in ten minutes." He stated but I just looked at him weirdly. What on earth was he on about?"Tenten's party, you wear that dress and I'll escort you." We stood outside my front door, where my mother was peeking through the curtains and watched to see if we would share anything special.

Shikamaru leaned forward and suddenly planted a delicate kiss on my cheek. It was something that I didn't expect but it happened just like 'that'. A simple yet heartwarming peck on my skin. He waved goodbye and rushed home where I on the other hand, stood on the same spot frozen while a blush crept on my face as well as my mother. She squealed something along the lines of me being on the road of 'love' .

Shikamaru Pov

Finally I was able to land a small kiss on her. It was defiantly worth it. Changing into something semi formal , I thought all the pain I went through to get the money to pay for her gift. Looking out the window to glace at the rooftop of Kiko's house.

Flashback -

"Ahh, Shikamaru I see you're quite desperate to ask me for womanly advice." Temari laughed as she huffed up, "Alright, I'll teach you all the tricks and how to be a 'good' boyfriend. Now follow my ropes, no complaints."

I sighed, following around this troublesome woman when I could be sitting under the clouds. Honestly ,I wasn't really paying attention, just imagining how my life would be like with 'her'. She's not ugly to scare me away and not too pretty to be stolen from me, just perfect.

"You need to understand her when she's upset you need to comfort her, with a hug or present like this." Temari placed an arm around me to demonstrate but a particular girl walked past and her eyes were fixed on the ground as if she wanted nothing to do with me. "Shikamaru, are you even listening? Now, we need you to do more missions and jobs to get you enough money for gifts and such."

Yes I was listening but at the same time, I stared at the window display where a mannequin wore the prefect dress for no one other than 'her'. It didn't stand out as much than the others which were draped with sequins and dashing colours but it was simple.

"Shikamaru, if you really want to get deep into being the 'best' boyfriend, we have to see each other more often and I'll do my best to help." I sigh, how troublesome is it to just have her to myself?

End flashback-

Spending so much time with Temari to get all this information almost ruined my chance with Kiko but at least it's now all over. I can finally be together with my troublesome girl.