Tradition


He was genius, but to be perfectly honest, he didn't quite understand tradition sometimes. Customs were celebrated differently in Suna rather than Konoha. But seeing as their primary home was to be in Konoha, he sacrificed having the ceremony in her village. Girls fussed more over the ceremony, and details, so he seen no real harm in doing so—he was feeling lazy when it came to all the arrangements anyways.

So with the ceremony being in Suna—he was able to gather a few friends, and his parents (he couldn't exactly take all the best ninja's and leave the village unprotected). So Chouji was his best man, Naruto was another groomsman, and Ino was there to support him as well.

Of course, a wedding meant a bachelor party, and quite frankly, he wasn't expecting one. And he certainly would have never imagined his soon-to-be-brother-in-law to be the person to throw it. Of course, as his fiancée explained, it was a tradition the whole village celebrated, and not really a "bachelor party" but more of a wedding shower.

Only there were belly dancers, belly dancers that were supposed to dance for the groom. Of course there was no striping, not that they were wearing much clothes anyways, or that he would want them to disrobe. But the thought of sitting there, with a bunch the single women of Suna shaking their hips for him in front of his soon-to-be-wife made him very uncomfortable. It just seemed like a troublesome situation.

He was never very into these types of things. Sure he liked females—but he didn't go to the bar or clubs, and he didn't see the necessity of a woman dancing for him. He was marrying his wife tomorrow, and he wasn't interested in seeing another woman.

So here he sat, his left cheek resting in the palm of his hand as he leaned on the armrest of his chair, waiting for the event to be over.

The lights suddenly went dim, and a shadow started to emerge from the center of the stage. Shikamaru rolled his eyes, already wishing for this to end quickly, but the slow beat from the ritual drums told him he was going to suffer longer than he wished to.

The drummer's beat their drum, and the shadow shook her hip to the right, and with another beat, back to the left, her arms slowly waving a long sheer sheet as she danced and flowed like water. Shikamaru stared for a moment, and then stole a glance at his fiancée, who sat there with a smile, enjoying the show. He turned his gaze back to the stage, allowing himself the first brief look over the dancers body.

She was tall, and lean with the body of an obvious athlete. Her hair was tied up, slightly different than the more custom way, but because of its obviously long length, it extended farther than it was meant to for the up-style, and reached passed her lower back, swaying hypnotically as she moved.

The beat of the enormous drums began to beat faster and the dancers began to shake her hips faster, there was a loud explosion, and a cover of fog and more dancers appeared from the smoke, dancing behind the woman.

She moved her arms and (he noted) long legs perfectly to the music, not missing a beat. She leaned back, perfectly in balance, and shook her body seductively; Shikamaru glimpsed at her chest during the movement and felt his face grow a little more heated.

Suddenly another explosion went off and a spotlight shined on the dancer. He could now see her pale skin, her silver halter and sheer purple and silver belly-skirts. His eyes widened when he made his way to her face.

"Ino!?" He couldn't stop himself from exclaiming his shock. He turned to Temari, utterly staggered and confused.

She looked at him as if nothing was wrong, "It's customary for the girl closes to the groom to give him his last belly dance."

Shikamaru felt his jaw slipping to the floor, "Y-You didn't tell me this before." He felt a brush of anger and embarrassment draw over him.

Temari only shrugged in response, "It's not like it's a big deal, she's almost done."

Shikamaru felt his eyebrow twitch as he avoided the stage Ino danced on, "Did she know all along she was going to do this?"

Temari scoffed, "We told her two nights ago, and after a few lessons she complied. It is tradition."

Shikamaru glared, but bit his tongue and slouched in his chair, allowing his eyes to crawl back to the stage. Ino now danced low to the floor, her legs curling under her as she bent back again, still moving with a perfect rhythm to the music. His eyes wandered over her body. From the dip of her hips, to her navel, back over her chest and up to her neck.

He groaned inwardly in discomfort. He should not be looking over one of his best and oldest friends like this. She sprinted up with grace and without difficulty. She spun on her heels, her hips still sliding to the hammering drums, and she inched towards his chair.

Shikamaru gripped his chair, silently begging her not to come further. But Ino always pushed her way into his life, she was born the day after him for Kami's sake. She was his shadow—something which meant more than a silhouette to the Nara clan. And as she came within arms reach—he pulled her to him. She was caught off guard and lost her footing, falling even more into him than he had originally intended, and his resistance broke completely.

He had been stupid enough to think marrying another woman would have kept him from being tempted by his friend, but she still found a way to tempt him further. Before anyone could understand, what was happening, why he had stopped her, he leaned forward, bending his neck, and brushed his lips against the smooth skin of her flat stomach.

He was going to hell for breaking tradition.

Author: I absolutely love this pairing. And I've been trying to write something for them for over two years. I plan on updating The Uchiha Secret, but I ended up writing this for a friend in a drabble exchange, and wanted to post it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I claim to own any characters therefore owned by Masashi Kishimoto.