He'll Hold You Back
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!
"I can't believe that Ino-Pig got to be with my Sauske-kun!" Sakura pouted staring at the brooding boy with hearts in her eyes.
"The, Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered putting his head down on the desk.
"You wouldn't understand." The girl muttered airily, hardly acknowledging her partner for the current assignment.
"I'm glad about that. All you girls are so Troublesome." He mumbled as he wondered how he had become engaged in a conversation that neither of them want to be in.
"That's just stupid, Shikamaru. Girls just happen to be smarter than boys." Sakura replied snidely.
"If that's true why do you dumb yourself down to the second highest score in the Academy? Doesn't sound like something a smart person would do." He rebuked staring out the window. Then again, who was he to talk. It's not like he went out of his way to make sure that the Academy knew his own intelligence.
Sakura froze, no one was supposed to know that she did that. Sauske-kun wouldn't want a girl smarter then him! And what would her parents think if they knew the truth! "I do no such thing!" She huffed pulling their worksheet towards her to start answering the questions.
"What a drag." Shikamaru leaned back on the chair. It was plainly obvious that he hadn't believed a word that had come out of Sakura's mouth. "You know that's not the correct answer for number four." He commented from where he sat, his chair perched on two legs as he leaned back.
"Why do you care? It's only two points and it's not like your grade will take a hit!" Sakura hissed in frustration. Why couldn't Shikamaru just leave her alone? He shouldn't care what grade they get, he isn't even doing any of the work.
"Because it is such a drag. You change your whole self for a guy who wont give you the time of day. Doesn't it get Troublesome?"
"I don't change myself." She protested softly as she tried to discreetly change the answer to question number four.
"But don't you?" he asked rhetorically. "You change your intelligence. You keep your hair at impractical lengths. You put more time into your appearance then you need too. You ruined your friendship with Ino. You wont speak your mind and your just trying to be someone you aren't. How isn't that Troublesome."
"Of course it isn't Troublesome. It's not like any of those things really matter."
"It does matter. All of it defines who you are and will become." Shikamaru answered contemplating the matter as he would a game of Shiogi.
Sakura fidgeted for a few moments, thinking about what he was saying. "You make it sound depressing and complicated."
"But its really simply. He is going to hold you back in life."
Two days later Iruka-sensei handed back the worksheets. Shikamaru and Sakura got a one hundred and two percent.