"Shikamaru-kun,"

"Yeah?"

"Do you love me?"

Shikamaru smiled.

"More than you know."


Shikamaru opened his eyes slowly. He turned his head slightly towards his

alarm clock which was beeping annoyingly. It was 6:00am. Damn, how he hated

mornings. He turned off the alarm almost destroying it in the process. Shikamaru

swung his legs lazily off his bed and onto the floor. He remembered that the

Hokage had sent him a message just yesterday requesting his presence in

her office the following morning.

"It's obviously a mission." He said to himself.

"Sometimes I wish I never became a jounin. How troublesome"

The nineteen year old Shikamaru stood up and stretched. It had been two

years since he became a jounin. Ever since he was promoted, he had been

sent here and there, carrying out B, A, and even S-ranked missions.

He wasn't too experienced, but he was, after all, a genius. He had the

skill and capacity to successfully finish his missions.

"I wonder what today's mission is" he yawned loudly, as he headed towards

the bathroom to shower.


"You're late!" Lady Tsunade yelled angrily.

"But you didn't even give me a time to arri..."

"Silence!" she spat back "I have a mission for you."

'Jeeze, what a surprise" He quietly mumbled to himself.

He noticed two familiar shinobi around him. A blue-eyed girl who had her

blonde hair in a small ponytail and a round boy with red swirls on his

cheeks who was eating a bag of potato chips.

"Chouji-kun, Ino-chan!" He ran towards them and trapped them both in a strong hug,

"You're back from your mission already?"

"Hey...Shik...amaru-kun...how have...you been?" Ino tried to say as she was

struggling to escape from the bear hug.

"Uh...Shikamaru…-kun...do we...have to go...through...this...every time we...

come back...from a mission?" Chouji asked painfully.

"Oh, sorry." Shikamaru said as he put them both back down.

He just couldn't help it. He remembered his first mission as a chuunin .

The time they tried to bring Sasuke back to Konoha. He could never quite

forget it, not because it was his first mission, but because he was so

close to losing his comrades and his best friend, Chouji. If it weren't for those

three sand genin, arriving in time to save them, he might not be here

right now. Especially that Temari girl, he surely saved his ass.

'Who would have thought a female sand genin would have saved my life'.

Since that day, he promised himself he would never endanger the lives of

his friends. He lived up to his promise by training harder to become a

better chuunin, which eventually led him to become a jounin, even though

he never really planned it.

"Now...your mission is to protect the Kazekage-sama." Tsunade said, interrupting Shikamaru's thoughts.

"Kazekage-sama? But why? Can't he protect himself from who ever is after him?" Chouji asked.

"The Akatsuki…" Tsunade began to say as the three fell silent, "is trying to assassinate the Kazekage. We believe they're trying to take over Suna and use it for their own personal reasons."

"Ummm, but aren't the sand ANBU suppose to protect their own leader?" Ino also asked.

"Most of them, including some jounin, are trying to locate and capture members of the Akatsuki. They're only two sand jounin available whom the Kazekage-sama truly trusts and besides, I want you three for this mission to help protect our ally."

"Well then, who are the two shinobi involved in this mission?" Shikamaru wondered.

"Those two shinobi are Kankurou and Temari."