Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, merchandise, TV rights, ect… (I think you get the point.) Nor do I own the song 'Baby Is A Butterfly' by Joan Osborne.

Summery

ONE SHOT – Butterflies. They were lazy just like Shikamaru, they were beautiful just like Ino and they liked sweet things just like Choji.

Like all of my work this is just something that happened to float through the empty void inside my head. Like it or hate it please R and R as honest opinions are always welcomed, as are random acts of worship.

Lamb: This is just a little idea that came to me while I was watching Choji's fight during the Sasuke Retrieval Arch, or more specifically while I was watching the flashbacks about his childhood.

Muse: Yeah, she started to go all in depth over Team Ten and still ended up hinting at SasuIno.

Dedi: Well she's nothing if not consistent… or do I mean obsessive?

Muse: Obsessive. Definitely Obsessive.

Dedi: True. This is dedicated to shadowphoenix101, Lamb's amazing wifey who also beta read this. So shadowphoenix101 this is for you.

Lamb: As always sorry for any bad spelling and if you feel the need to throw things at me please wait until I've hidden behind the sofa kay!?

Muse: On with the fic!

You're my butterfly, don't fly away,

Open my hands, your free,
Praying you'll come back to me,
You're my butterfly, don't fly away,
You're my reality, always be my gravity,

You're my butterfly,
Come on and touch the sky,

Little Butterfly

How had it happened? How!

The question went round and round inside the Nara's head as he moved hesitantly towards the body of his fallen team-mate. He was meant to protect them, that was his job, his responsibility as team leader. They were his team-mates, but more than that they were his friends, and he hadn't been able to keep them safe and unharmed.

Her head had rolled back in such a way that he could already see the bruises forming on the delicate skin of her throat. A blade had ripped part way through her top on the right side, slicing though bindings and flesh alike and revealing the three butterflies tattooed on her ribs. One for each of them. Blood was trickling from between her slightly parted lips as she lay unmoving on the dusty ground, her pale hair had been pulled free from its tie and was splayed out under her head.

Choji was crouching down next to her and he could see the blood that flowed from a dozen different cuts that covered his best friend. His clothes were ripped and his right eye was starting to swell, the bruised skin looking tender and sore. Shikamaru felt his heart skip a beat as he saw the Akimichi first place a hand on the girl's chest to check her breathing and then more worryingly move to check her pulse. Searching for the soft butterfly wing flutter against his fingertips.

It was going to be like Asuma-sensei all over again.

He had fallen at the hands of the Akatsuki and all Shikamaru had been able to do was stand on and watch as his life slipped away. And now Ino had fallen at the hands of the Sound Village. He was loosing them all one by one and there was nothing he could do.

There's a mansion on the moon,
Honey we will be there soon,
Into ships our dreams are tossed,
Hold my hand and let's get lost,

Choji was calling out, waving him over, but guilt was clawing at the shadow possessor's insides, blocking out the words of his team-mate. He had been so angry with her.

They were out numbered and out classed, but they would not give up. Choji, Ino, for all that people said they were lacking when it came to skill neither of them knew how to give up. They would continue to fight long past the point when any sane person would have admitted defeat and retreated. Where he would have admitted defeat and retreated.

But even he had been determined to keep fighting. The slow sly smirk on the face of the Konoha traitor had made his blood boil in a way he had never known before, that look of mingled contempt and superiority had made voices inside Shikamaru's head scream with rage. To think that he had risked the lives of his friends and comrades to try and bring that cold blooded snake back to the Hidden Leaf Village.

Choji had almost died because of him!

Baby Is a Butterfly,
Silken wings and eagle eye,
Watch her running up the sky,
Oh Baby…is a butterfly,

Shikamaru would never forget the fear that had filled him in those long, seemingly endless, hours that he had spent sitting in the corridor out side the room in which medics worked desperately to save Choji's life. He would never really be able to describe how completely useless he had felt sitting there with only the silent sand kunoichi as companionship. It had been his first mission as platoon leader and not only had he failed he had almost gotten his best friend, as well as others, killed.

But Choji had not blamed him; he had shrugged it off when Shikamaru had tried awkwardly to apologise. They were both shinobi of The Village Hidden in the Leaves, they had done their duty, and even if they had not succeeded no one could say that each member of the team had not fought with everything that they had. And that was just how the boy was.

People always got so distracted by first impressions, whenever they looked at Choji they saw someone who would rather stuff their face than do anything else. They never stopped long enough to take that vital second look. No one ever paused long enough to see what a kind hearted person he was and just what a loyal and devoted friend he could be. It was why he would fight to the death anyone who dared to badmouth Shikamaru. And why, though she constantly nagged and annoyed him, he would take down anyone who looked at Ino the wrong way. And heaven help the boy that wouldn't take no for an answer from Choij's butterfly.

Always over looked and undervalued by so many people, but Choji never seemed to mind. He was the best friend that either he or Ino could have ever asked for.

And he had almost left Choji and let him die for this serpent!?

A movement on his peripheral vision caught the Nara's attention and he watched in horror as Ino accelerated and realized in an instant that she was intent on coming between him and the Uchiha. Rage filled him as he mentally screamed at the stupid blonde. Did she not realize that Sasuke was not the same boy she idolized, he was a traitor, an enemy of Konoha and she could not protect him no matter how much she may want to. He started to move then, intent on pushing the love blinded fool out of the way and it was only then that he saw the kunai in her hands.

Rivers never stop to rest,
Sparrows know that they are blessed,

Stars are hiding in the clouds,

Branches gonna catch them now,

The blazing inferno of Shikamaru's anger was doused by a wave of ice cold fear. She wasn't trying to protect Sasuke, the reckless brat was trying to protect him! It felt as if his legs had turned to lead, as if the whole world was moving in slow motion as he tried to reach his emotional and tempestuous team-mate. But even as he did he knew it would be useless.

Why did she have to choose that moment to come over all protective? But even as he asked himself Shikamaru already knew the answer, she hadn't picked that moment, she had always been protective of them even before Asuma-sensei had told her to look out for them. It was just that up until then she hadn't felt that they were in need of her protection.

And now that she did, the impulsive brat had willingly put herself between him and a man known to be a cold blooded killer.

He saw the look of faint shock that flashed momentarily in the turncoat's eyes; almost as if the crimson eyed male could not quite believe that the girl who had once adored him was now posed to attack him. And then just as suddenly as it had slowed, the world seemed to pick up speed once more and he saw Ino's body flying through the air as she was roughly tossed aside. She landed with a bone-cracking crunch on the hard ground, but was already struggling back to her feet as Choji moved to defend her.

Baby Is a Butterfly,
Changing right before my eyes,
Hurts me so to hear her cry,
Oh baby…is a butterfly,

Ino! Shika! Cho!

They were Team Ten though at times he had found himself thinking of them as three of the seven deadly sins. Ino as vanity, himself as sloth and Choji as gluttony. Personality wise they were probably three of the most difficult shinobi to get along with in their graduating class. A lazy ass daydreamer, a stuck up princess, and a face stuffing tubby. But somehow as a team they worked. Canceling out each other's weaknesses and enhancing each other's strengths.

"She's all right! D'you hear me Shikamaru? She's going to be all right."

The words broke through his thoughts, bringing his fear addled mind back into the moment with a dizzying jolt. She was going to be all right? Their stubborn, headstrong butterfly was going to be all right. Relief and worry warred for supremacy within the shadow possessor's mind. Of course he was happy that Ino was going to live, the thought of losing another team-mate scared him more than almost anything else. Almost anything else, except perhaps the answer to the question of why the traitor had left her alive.

The look on that viper's face as he had watched as Ino darted around the protective wall of Choji and dive at one coming sound nin was one that would haunt him for years to come. It was cold and calculating, but there was also a darkly possessive quality to it that terrified the Nara for reasons he could not have named.

The lazy genius had seen that look before when that snake had looked at their blonde haired brat, but now something in it had intensified, almost as if it had been distilled until all that was left was a gleam in scarlet eyes. A look that clearly said that as far as he was concerned the Leaf kunoichi at which he looked belonged to him and him alone. The Uchiha had had his hands round her throat, he could have snapped her neck or strangled her without a problem, and yet he hadn't. For some unknown reason he had let the ice eyed mind walker live.

In her academy days Ino had been one of the strongest in their group, but now she was considered the weakest of the kunoichi in the Konoha Twelve. Tenten was the best weapons expert the village had ever seen. Hyuuga Hinata had developed her skill with her blood limit until it almost rivalled that of her cousin. And since being taken in as the Godaime Hokage's apprentice and learning the secret of her immense strength Haruno Sakura had become a force to be reckoned with.

Staying all day at the fair,
Evening primrose in her hair,
Everything's a miracle,
Now my cup is always full,

There was no denying that the Yamanaka was an exceptional shinobi, it was just that she always came up a little short when compared to her peers. But aside for her heart and great determination she did have one other thing that the others lacked, she had the Shintenshin no Jutsu of the Yamanaka clan. And Shikamaru could easily see how an ability like that might be very valuable to someone such as the Uchiha. And it also meant that his loud mouthed team-mate was in more danger than she could possibly imagine.

He watched as Choji scooped up the body of their still unconscious kunoichi, her slender body dwarfed by the size of the shinobi who held her. But he held her so carefully, as if she were something precious that might break if she were handled roughly. And though dead to the world, Ino instinctively turned into the bulk of the Akimichi seeking the warmth and protection that he offered.

It was like the purple butterfly all over again, Shikamaru thought.

The other kids had been so cruel to Choji that day, saying they didn't want him to play ninja with them because whenever he joined in his team always lost. Konoha's most lazy shinobi could still remember the dejected look on the chubby boy's face as he walked away. He was so lost in his own pain that he didn't really seem to be aware of anything around him and yet…

There it was, its fragile lilac wings beating futilely as it desperately tried to free its self from the sticky gossamer strands of the spider's web in which it was trapped. Choji had reached up and oh so carefully removed the struggling butterfly from its finely spun prison. For a moment he had held the delicate beauty in his cupped hands before letting it take to the air where it almost seemed to float on the light summer breeze.

And that was what Shikamaru felt he was seeing once more.

Cus Baby Is a Butterfly,
Silken wings and eagle eye,
We'll be angels by and by,
Oh Baby…is a butterfly,

Ino looked so small and pale her body hanging limply in Choji's arms, she reminded him so much of that butterfly. Trapped in a prison that it couldn't escape from. The memory of the look on the face of the revenge crazed Uchiha crossed his mind and he could not suppress the shudder of apprehension that ran through him.

The only difference was that their butterfly's cage was one she did not yet know she was caught in.

Lamb: Well there you have it… whatever it is. It's been a very long times since I've written anything like this and this is the first time I have for the Naruto fandom. So yeah, just let me know what you thought.

Muse: Personally I think you've been at the funny mushrooms again.

Dedi: shadowphoenix101 we hope you liked it, and if we find out it was you who gave Lamb the mushrooms, well you're probably just as out of it as she is.

Please R and R I'd love to know what you thought.

Big love and inspiration

Lamanth