The purpose of this story is basically stress relief compacted with boredom. I have not done this sort of thing in a while so I figured I should start off on an easier note. So it just a fun, simple one-shot that I hope yall all enjoy. Oh and please review, it makes writing more fun when I feel like people are liking my work, thanks Rye.
It was do or die.
The tension in her hands was so intense she could literally feel them begin to turn white. Flexing them momentarily eased the strain but the pain of clenching her fist so tightly was back in a few seconds. Sweat dripped down her brow and her hair refused to stay neatly out of her face.
All in all, it was a very tense time.
The moment she moved the shogi piece, a relief so profound swept through her body that her shoulders drastically sagged. She threw a triumph smile at her opponent with the though in mind, lets see if he can beat that.
Said opponent was not surprising catching a doze in between moves. It had only taken her about fifteen minutes to make that last move but then again Shikamaru could fall into a dead sleep in three seconds flat. (Well that was the rumor anyway.)
One of the spectators to their fierce battle shoved Shikamaru hard on the shoulder in an effort to wake him up. The crowd surrounding the match moved in closer as her opponent jerked awake with a scowl and glazed eyes. Glancing at the board, it took him two seconds to move his piece and claim victory of the match.
Sakura gaped in shock, awe, and quite a bit of irritation. It had taken her quite a bit of time to run through strategies yet he effortlessly beat her with his eyes half closed. This was outrageous! She was snapped out of her stupor by the lazy shinobi gracefully rising to his feet.
"Nice game, see ya around," called Shikamaru as he began walking in the direction of the training fields.
Sakura jumped to her feet in a move so fast, she became a bit light-headed. That however did not deter her from stomping in the direction of the lazy shinobi and poking him in the chest with her finger.
"I demand a rematch," were the first words that burst from her mouth. Shikamaru could not help but be amused even if his face did not show it. Sakura was a good deal shorter than him and looking down at the tiny kunoichi poking him with that obstinate look on her face was almost too much to bear. He could easily see why many shinobi had a certain fondness for her.
Catching the finger in his larger hand, Shikamaru lazily answered her demand, "No thanks, I would rather go find a nice shaded spot. " Shikamaru took a step back and dropped her finger from his grip. He turned and began to make his way back to the training ground but something made him look back at Sakura. Her green eyes were narrowed in annoyance and her stance defiant, too bad she looked more like a disgruntle kitten than a dangerous kunoichi.
Sakura couldn't believe his gall to refuse her a rematch. It is not like she was bad at shogi; he was just freakishly good at it. The unbearable amused look in his eyes was mocking her to do more than just poke him in the chest. Unfortunately for Sakura, her finger was currently being held captive in his strong grip. Unless she used chakra, there was no way she breaking his grip. Luckily while she considering her options he let go of her hand and stepped back.
Looking up in his eyes, she noticed a certain light that she couldn't place. He seemed to be looking at her in a way she didn't quite understand. Before she could analyze it further, Shikamaru was backing away.
"Bye Sakura, I will see you later."
Shikamaru then turned and continued heading toward the training grounds. Leaving Sakura to seethe as she had finally figured out that look in his eyes. It was smugness. That lazy jerk was actually under the impression he was better than her. Sure maybe her skills at shogi were average but that gave him no right to be so infuriatingly arrogant. It made her want to strangle the bastard.
"You are crazy. Shikamaru doesn't have an arrogant bone in his body; he is way too lazy for that kind of attitude. Egotistical people have to make an effort at it. "
Ino sounded so sure of herself that Sakura just had to bring her ego down a notch.
"Just like you, Pig?"
Sakura smirked at the offended look Ino acquired after her statement. They were walking around town after Ino complained that the boringness of the shogi match had made her hungry. Of course after passing a couple of interesting stores, it was clear that Ino had more on her mind then food.
"It's not cocky; it's confidence, something that you could learn from Forehead. Oh look at those shoes, I wonder if they have them in my size."
"I thought we were going get something to eat, Ino. I am starving," a plaintive whine from Sakura made Ino huff in impatience and pull a protesting Sakura into the store.
"Stop complaining we will get something to eat in a minute, I have to find something to wear for my date tonight. It won't kill you to help me shop even if your taste is questionable."
Four hours later, Ino had finally found the perfect outfit for her date and was now dragging Sakura to a restaurant. Ino then proceeded to place all the blame on Sakura for taking to long in the stores and now she was suffering from malnutrition.
Sakura rolled her eyes at that statement knowing Ino had a flare for the dramatics. They were heading to their favorite café when a familiar looking shinobi came into view. Shikamaru was a little ways ahead of them walking in the same direction, it could probably be assumed he was also heading to get lunch. Sakura glowered at the jerk's back, still not able to let go of his condescending attitude.
It wasn't until she heard Ino's distinct voice and the words, "Hey Shikamaru, wait up, " did Sakura realize that her bad day was just about to get worse.
Transferring her glare from the shinobi of her frustration to her so-called best friend, Sakura could only look on in horror as Ino proceeded to bring Shikamaru's attention to them.
The screeching quality of Ino's voice was hard to miss and Shikamaru could not help but cringe slightly when he heard it. Even after being her teammate for so long, he didn't believe he would ever get used to it. Knowing that Ino would never go away without his acknowledgement, Shikamaru turned and was pleasantly surprised at the person accompanying his team member.
Sakura looked as though she had just eaten something extremely sour from the expression on her face. Yet even with her tense facial features, she still managed to look absolutely adorable.
Shikamaru smirked as he stopped and let the pair of kunoichi catch up with him.
"Are you going get something to eat, Shikamaru? We are to; you can join us huh? Prefect, I can show you my knew outfit for my date…"
Ino hooked her arm around Shikamaru's arm and pulled Sakura along with her other hand as she kept up her rambling stream of conversation. He glanced over at Sakura and to his surprise she was looking at him. She appeared to be studying him as if she wasn't quite sure who he was.
"Do I have something on my face?" Shikamaru had to suppress a laugh when Sakura jumped from surprise at the question. Her cheeks blooming pink as she realized she had been caught staring.
Ino startled by Sakura's sudden movement turned to look at Shikamaru in confusion.
"You don't have anything on your face. Oh look there is the restaurant, come on I am so starving."
Finally seated a table with drinks in front of them, Sakura wished she could calm down.
Ino was chattering away but for the life of her Sakura could not pay attention. Shikamaru had chose to sit opposite of her and just the memory of his amused eyes made her blush all over again. She kept her eyes downcast, too embarrassed to make eye contact with him so soon after the incident. The arrival of the waitress however prompted her get herself together. For god's sake, she trained with a legendary sannin she could face Shikamaru, no problem.
To bad as soon as she looked up into Shikamaru's face, a bright blush appeared on her cheeks. He was staring at her! Not just a passing glace kind of staring but a leaning his chin on his hands, eyes focused directly on her kind of staring.
"What would you like, miss?"
Sakura tore her eyes away from Shikamaru's and turned to give the waitress her attention.
"Oh um, I will have, um hold on a second…"
"She will have the same thing as me," spoken by the only male voice at the table.
The waitress smiled and said their orders would be ready soon before leaving the occupants to themselves.
Sakura was once again glaring at Shikamaru. She hated when men ordered for her!
"I could have ordered by myself, you know, " said an annoyed Sakura.
Shikamaru allowed a smug grin to settle on his lips as he answered, "Of course you could have but since you were planning on taking all day, I took the liberty and ordered for you."
"Well next time do us a favor and shove that liberty up your ass."
At this point, Ino was looking back and forth between to two wondering what was going on.
"Um guys, did I miss something?"
Her companions spoke a simultaneous 'No' in regards to her question.
The tension between Sakura and Shikamaru was only thickening and Ino had determined that she had in fact missed something. Well she wasn't about to let good gossip go to waste but before she could begin to pry; the waitress came back with their food.
Ino tried to pull her companions into a conversation but to no avail. Sakura was stubbornly ignoring Shikamaru and he was to busy focusing on Sakura to care. Fifteen minutes into the nearly silent meal, Shikamaru push his plate back and began to stand. Dropping his portion of the bill on the table, he turned toward Sakura and said, "I will pick you up at 8 tonight."
Sakura's eyes narrowed in confusion as she looked at the shinobi. "What are you talking about?"
"Earlier you stated that next time I should refrain from ordering for you. So tonight I am taking you out and letting you make your own choice. Be ready at 8."
Shikamaru nodded to a stunned Ino and then left the girls to the remainder of their lunch.
"Wait! I never said yes," Sakura cried out but it was too late he had already left.
Sakura turned back to the meal he had order for her. It was tempura, her favorite.
Sakura was officially freaking out.
It was a quarter after 7 and she was running out of time to get ready for this date.
Sakura stopped and shook her head; it was not a date. It was just a dinner thing. Ino had offered to help her get ready but Sakura knew that it was just a ploy to get information. Sadly even if Ino had tried to get gossip, she would have been disappointed because at this point Sakura had no clue what was going on.
This day had been the most trying and confusing day she had experienced in a long time. Shikamaru's smugness was absolutely irritating but at the same time she couldn't help but notice how attractive he was with that smirk on his face. The way he focused his attention solely on her and his amused brown eyes literally made her shiver.
Glancing at the clock, she realized her internal musing had wasted time and now she only had 30 minutes before he showed up.
Grimacing to herself, Sakura wonder if maybe she should just cancel due to illness. She figured she could fool Shikamaru with some medical term for the butterflies in her stomach.
The night was going amazingly well to Sakura's surprise.
Shikamaru picked her up right on time and then let her decide where they were going to eat. She had decided on her favorite sushi place, it was fast and simple. At the time, she had been thinking that the faster it was over the better.
Now Sakura was wondering if she had everything wrong about Shikamaru.
He was charming, sweet, and ridiculously attractive. There was the hint of arrogance but instead of annoying her; it was being to turn her on. This sudden flare of attraction toward Shikamaru was making her nervous.
"Why are you so quiet?"
Sakura smiled at her companion for the evening and replied, "No reason, just thinking."
Shikamaru arched his eyebrow in her direction, "About?"
"Nothing Important," said Sakura still smiling to herself.
They were in front her door now and her nerves shot up ten fold. What if he kissed her? What if he didn't? Did she want him too? So many questions buzzing in her brain that she didn't notice Shikamaru's movements till he put both his hands directly on her shoulders.
She looked up into his eyes anticipating his next move.
"Sakura Haruno, I like you."
It was so frank and something only a person with total self-assured arrogance would say.
Then he kissed her.
It was like nothing she had ever experienced before. Sure she had been kissed and their had been many great kisses but none had felt as utterly right as this one did. He was the prefect example of passive aggressive kissing. His mouth was hot and hard against hers but he was liked to play slow and sensual. It was the perfect moment and then it ended.
He pulled his face back but didn't let go of her shoulders or put any distance between then.
Sakura knew there was only one thing left to do. "Do you want to come in?"
Shikamaru smirked and answered, "Very much so."
As she pulled him inside, Sakura figured she could deal with his arrogance as long as he continued to kiss her like that.
End