Right, right. This is a long old fic that I originally ran on deviantart, with people voting for who should win. Obviously you can't vote on here, but I hope you'll enjoy it all the same - and you can still tell me who you're rooting for! Even though it's already written I'll only be submitting a bit at a time.
Shikamaru – Troublesome Girls Pt 1
Shikamaru sighed. He was sick of all the troublesome girls following him like little puppies, and getting in his way. He couldn't even go out to get lunch without someone hitting on him! It was ridiculous, and it had to stop.
Still, he couldn't help thinking that Chouji's idea was going a little too far…
It had all started a week ago, when Shikamaru had complained for the umpteenth time about all the girls following him around.
Chouji, crunching a few crisps conspiratorially, beckoned Shikamaru into a shadowy corner where no one could hear them.
"Listen, Shikamaru… I've got the best idea ever. If you don't want the girls to follow you around all the time, then you should have a contest to see who is the least troublesome girl, and then date her!"
"What?" Shikamaru asked. Even though he had an extremely high IQ, he couldn't work out how that would actually get him away from the girls. Dating was even more troublesome!
"Listen, you should get all the contestants to sign something to say they won't follow you around any more if you don't choose them! Then, you take the girl who wins out on a couple of dates, and then dump her. So, you get rid of all the girls at once! I've seen something like this on TV and it really works!"
Shikamaru considered it for a few moments, his head on one side.
"Alright… but I'm not organising it all. You do it. It's too troublesome."
Now Shikamaru sat at a desk, a huge pile of applications in front of him, with an extremely troublesome job to do. He had to pick ten of his 'fans' to enter a reality-show-style contest for his heart. This was impossible. Choose ten, out of all these applications? They were all just troublesome girls!
He sighed, and picked up the first one as Chouji looked on in a hopeful way. The application cards all held a picture and then some facts about the contestant.
Name: Yamanaka Ino
Age: 18
Hair colour: Blonde
Village: Leaf
Outstanding qualities: Closeness to Shikamaru as teammate since childhood.
Shikamaru flipped the card onto the 'accept' pile. What could it hurt, to have Ino as one of the contestants? As an old friend of his, she wouldn't be too troublesome…
He continued to flip through the pile, until he had somehow managed to draw out ten finalists. Giving the ten cards to Chouji, he walked out, muttering, "That was troublesome."
Chouji looked down at the cards in his hand, and was quite surprised by Shikamaru's choices. Now he knew why, as he was choosing, Shikamaru had at times grinned evilly, looked away thoughtfully, and widened his eyes in shock. This contest was going to be so much more than troublesome. As well as Ino, Shikamaru had chosen:
Name: Tenten
Age: 19
Hair colour: Dark brown
Village: Leaf
Outstanding qualities: Managed to survive in the team of youthfulness – could handle just about anything.
Name: Haruna Sakura
Age: 18
Hair colour: Pink
Village: Leaf
Outstanding qualities: A medic nin with a caring heart.
Name: Temari
Age: 20
Hair colour: Blonde
Village: Sand
Outstanding Qualities: Having fought both with and alongside Shikamaru, they know each other quite well by now.
Name: Deidara
Age: Unknown – in his twenties
Hair colour: Blonde
Village???
Outstanding Qualities: Part of an evil organisation; Likes blowing things up.
Name: Gaara
Age: 19
Hair colour: Red
Village: Sound
Outstanding Qualities: Kazekage; and the sand, of course.
Name: Uzumaki Naruto
Age: 18
Hair colour: Blond
Village: Leaf
Outstanding Qualities: A long-time companion of Shikamaru's with an instant likeability.
Name: Hyuuga Neji
Age: 19
Hair colour: Black
Village: Leaf
Outstanding Qualities: Byakugan; being really pretty.
Name: Hyuuga Hinata
Age: 18
Hair colour: Black
Village: Leaf
Outstanding Qualities: shyness, which some find endearing.
Name: Sai
Age: 18
Hair colour: Black
Village: Leaf
Outstanding Qualities: A penchant for midriff-revealing shirts.
Chouji sighed and shook his head. This wasn't going according to plan. Half the people here weren't even female! How was Deidara supposed to compete when he was technically an enemy? In fact, how had he even submitted an application?! And Shikamaru had pitted siblings and cousins against each other! Did he even swing that way? For the whole time Chouji had known him, he had believed Shikamaru was straight… what was going on?!
He went outside and told the expectant crowd of Shikamaru's fans the list of who had made it through to the contest. Ino flipped her hair vainly, Tenten, Sakura and Temari all watched their opponents closely, Gaara allowed himself a slight smile, Naruto punched the air happily, the Hyuugas stared at each other uncomfortably, and Sai smiled round at the other contestants. Deidara was nowhere to be seen, but somehow Chouji knew he would make it to the contest…
Munching a chocolate bar he handed out maps to all the lucky winners.
"Follow these until you find the woods owned by the Nara clan. There are some tree houses that you'll be staying in for the rest of the contest. Please be there for 12 noon tomorrow."
As the crowd rushed away, Chouji finished the bar and pulled out another. Yes, he thought. In the words of Shikamaru, this is going to be VERY troublesome.