I own nothing but my pillow, which I keep stealing from Michael.

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ICKY BOYS

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"Ino-chan! Don't put the bed there!"

"Oops, sorry, Forehead-girl!"

"Ino-pig!"

Two little girls laughed as they played with their dollhouse set on the second floor of the Yamanaka flower shop.

One with short bubble-gum pink hair sat indian style next to the medium-sized dollhouse as the other one lay belly-faced on the carpeted floor beside her, her own short blonde hair tied into a small pony-tail.

"Hey, Ino?" the pink-haired girl said turning to her.

"Yeah, Sakura?" Ino asked, not looking up as she continued to fiddle with her doll's dress.

Sakura suddenly drew her eyes back to the floor, blushing. "You know that Uzumaki boy?" Ino nodded, finally turning to her. "He…h-he said he liked me…"

Ino's blue-green eyes widened before she burst into laughter. "Ne, Sakura! Of all the boys that like you—it's that Naruto loser!" she cackled.

Sakura turned red in bother anger and embarrassment. "Ino! Stop laughing! I don't like him back… It's not funny! Ino!"

"H-he's loud and weird and doesn't stop moving even when's he sitting down!" Sakura continued. "And he smells like ramen!" Ino showed no signs of stopping.

Soon enough, the laughed had died down and Ino patted Sakura on the back sympathetically. "There, there, Sakura. It's okay."

Sakura sniffed, "Ino-chan, why are boys so icky?"

"A mys'try us girl will never solve." Ino said, shaking her head solemnly.

"Ino, we have to stay away from boys at all costs! We can't let them spread their icky-ness to us!"

Both faces turned serious. "You're right, forehead-girl." She said, sitting up excitedly. "Lets make a promise!"

Sakura and Ino immediately locked pinkies. "We, Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino will stay away and not talk to any icky boys 'til we die!"

"Hai!"

The two girls giggled as they resumed play with their dolls. After a while, they heard knocking at Ino's bedroom door.

"Ino-chan," Ino's mother called, poking her head into the room, the door not fully open. "Shikamaru-kun has arrived to help with the shop today. Would you go down and greet him?"

Ino stood up, "Sure, Okaa-san."

The blonde turned to her friend, "Come on, Sakura. You can come help too."

As the girl journeyed to the shop on the first floor, Sakura wondered who this Shikamaru was. I don't know anyone named Shikamaru… but Ino seems to. But wait! Isn't 'Shikamaru' a name of a…

"Shika!" squealed Ino as she embraced a kid about their age briefly. "Thanks for helping out today in the shop. I know how lazy you can be!"

Sakura stared wide-eyed at person whose face expression couldn't look more bored.

"Troublesome," he grunted as Ino stared instructing (bossing) him where to rearrange the flower pots.

A BOY!

Sakura choked on her own saliva. "I-ino?"

At the sound of her name, Ino turned back to a Sakura. "Oh yeah! Sorry 'bout that Sakura!" Ino grabbed Sakura's hand and pulled her towards the boy.

The icky boy.

"Sakura, this is Nara Shikamaru." She said. Sakura, faithful to their promise, unlike SOME people, tugged the corner of her mouth with an attempt to give a quick smile.

"His Otou-san and my daddy are best friends and used to be on the same team. So he comes over a lot to help with the flower shop and I go over to his fields to help with their deer stuff." Ino explained.

"Ne, Shikamaru, this is my best friend, Haruno Sakura." Shikamaru stared blankly back at her, not doing anything. "Shika-baka! You're suppose to hello back!" she nudged him.

Yeah! At least I smiled at him! Sakura agreed in her head. Well, tried to smile.

Shikamaru grunted, "Che." As he headed into Ino's kitchen.

"Oi, Shika! Don't eat all the dango this time, would'ya!" Ino called after him.

As soon as the icky boy! disappeared behind the kitchen door, Sakura exploded.

"Ino!" Sakura cried, incredulously.

"Nani?" Ino replied, oblivious to her crime.

"You broke our promise!" she wailed, waving her pinky in Ino's face. "We're not suppose to talk to icky boys! We promised!"

Ino laughed. "Is that all? Oh Forehead-girl, Shikamaru doesn't count!"

"Ano, why not--!" Sakura paused. And then she gasped. "Oh, okay… So he's…"

"What--? No! H-he's not--! Sakura!"

"Then why can't he be counted!"

Ino grinned from ear to ear and said, "'Cause he's Shika! I've known him forever—and I'm only 8!"

Sakura crossed her arms and huffed hotly, "But he's still an icky boy!"

"Ne, Sakura, he's lazy, but not icky." Ino giggled.

She stared at her best friend as if she had lost her mind. Why is Ino-chan defending this… this… Shikamaru! He. Is. A BOY! An icky one! Like all the rest of them! Sakura inwardly gasped. Could it be…! Does Ino-chan—!

Her thought remained incomplete as Sakura's mother appeared, beckoning her to come home. "It's time to go sweetie."

Sakura and Ino waved at each other as Sakura and her mother left the shop. As they rounded the street corner, Ino made her way to her kitchen were she found her mother preparing lunch and the icky boy himself sitting on the table, helping himself to the plate of dango her mother had placed in front of him.

"Okaa-san, Sakura's mother just picked her up." Ino said, sitting herself beside Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru, you should've said hello back to her." She said to him, as she reached to his plate to grab a stick of dango.

Shikamaru grunted as he swatted her hand away ("Shika!"), "She didn't say hi. She just did something funny with her mouth."

Ino opened her mouth to reply but found nothing came out. She quickly closed her mouth and glared at him. "Hmph." He's always right!

Shikamaru rolled his eyes as she sulked in her defeat. "Hn." He said, offering the last stick of dango in her face.

Ino's face immediately brightened as she took and bit into it. "Ah, thanks Shika! I told Sakura you weren't icky!"

Shikamaru blinked.

-FIN-

Okay, I'll clear things up now!

a.) They haven't met Sasuke yet, thus the anti-icky boy promise.

b.) Dango is that stuff Anko was eating during the Chuunin Exams.

c.) The Yamanaka clan own a flower buisness and the Nara clan have their own deer buisness.

Thanks for reading! Please comment on my writing--it will be appreciated!

Feedback is love.