I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. They were created by Masashi Kishimoto. I am not making any profit from this story.
Shikamaru lay on his back atop the roof of the Konoha flower shop, watching lazily as cotton candy clouds slowly inched across the finally blue sky. With the heat of the sun's rays being kept completely in check by the perfect amount of breeze, it was clearly one of those very rare days in which the weather was perfect for leisure outside. These were the days that Shikamaru enjoyed the most, days when you could play shougi for hours in the shade without being burnt by the sun or chilled by the air. This was the weather that would allow for any activity, from enjoying a few hours in and around some water to getting in some training for an upcoming mission.
The smell of the thousands of flowers below him floated with the sounds of laughter, joy, and the occasional question by a customer that asked what type of flower they should purchase. These questions were always answered immediately by the voice of Shikamaru's boisterous blonde childhood friend and current teammate, Ino. Of course, since Ino was currently trying to sell flowers, she was doing something she hardly ever did in her free time, act nice and sweet. This was the side of Ino that Shikamaru didn't find troublesome at all, at least compared to her other often bossy and loud personality. Shikamaru has discovered tons of things about Ino, knowing a lot more than most people know about her, perhaps even more than she realizes about herself. One thing that he wasn't sure of about her was if she could tell that her bossy attitude was truly a mask put up for whatever reason. He remembered back to the days when Ino wasn't so assertive and certainly wasn't almost obsessed with her image. Shikamaru remembered the days when Ino helped a young Sakura gain confidence in herself.
Perhaps it was due to his thinking of one of his teammates, or perhaps it was from the new arrival of the scent of cooking barbeque, maybe it was just due to the reoccurring feeling of guilt at nearly leading his best friend to his death a few days ago, but whatever it was, Shikamaru's brilliant mind turned to Chouji. It should be a crime to waste even a moment of a day like the one that had taken Konoha in it's grasp, especially after the few days of off and on rain and gloom that had overtaken the hidden village. Unfortunately, many of Konoha's inhabitants, especially those involved with a certain nearly catastrophic and almost completely failed mission that had occurred just a few days before, a mission lead by none other than the genius child Shikamaru, were not fully able to appreciate the perfection of the day that they were privileged.
"To think I could ever find watching clouds and rest to be tiresome, these past few days sure have changed me." Shikamaru thought to himself.
After a few seconds that were spent knocking thoughts of the Sasuke Retrieval mission to the back of his mind, Shikamaru let a grin grace his face. Shikamaru waited for a few minutes to make sure there were no more customers for Ino to try to sell flowers to, trying to decide what he was going to eat at the barbeque while he counted the seconds of complete silence from the shop below. As soon as he was certain that no one but Ino occupied the building he was perched atop, Shikamaru rolled across the roof and leaped down to the street in front of the door to the shop. "Hey Ino, take a lunch break and we can go get a meal. I'll bet the price of lunch that Chouji is already there waiting for us."
Ino opened her mouth to reply with what was certainly going to be a refusal, Shikamaru cut her off with "No getting out of this one, and yes, even if you are on another crazy unnecessary diet, you still need to eat."
"Alright alright. Fine. You better tell me what is in that letter you received from the Hokage though as payment for me spending time with you." Ino replied with a smirk. "Oh, and make sure you bring your wallet, I plan on buying the most expensive healthy item there." she finished jokingly.
"I shouldn't be too much trouble for him or Chouji for a while, seeing as they are still recovering from the mission. It should be good for me to have a little fun for once. Like it used to be before having to train so much." Ino thought to herself as she walked through the door that was held by Shikamaru.
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"Ugh, I'm so stuffed." Ino sighed as she pushed away her plate and collapsed against the table. "I can't wait to see the look on Shikamaru's face when he sees the bill. Serves him right though, he is the one that made the bet, lost since Chouji wasn't here when we first arrived, so he should end up paying for everyone. Chouji showing up late only makes it better, Shikamaru loses the bet and has to pay for Chouji." went through her mind.
"Hey… Ino! you get poisoned from one of those weird leaves in the salad or are you actually thinking? " Shikamaru blurted. "Meh, looks like she is going to take her time and attempt to make sure I'm trapped with the bad side of the bet. Unfortunately for her, I won the moment I made the bet." Shikamaru's mind told him. While still waiting for a response, he set his elbow upon the table and rest his chin on his palm. As soon as he let his eyes travel from his plate to the table to Ino herself, due to an odd mix of boredom and anticipation of her slow coming response, he saw that he wasn't completely right. "That isn't a face of Ino trying to think or concentrate, it almost looks… like… a face of extreme delight. Oh no, don't tell me that she not only thinks that she won, but is so confident she isn't even trying to check for me to have a way out… wow… she totally is going to make that face until I ask why she is so happy, just so I am the one that starts the conversation that leads to what she thinks is my loss. So troublesome… I bet if I make her wait much longer she strikes a pose and declar-"
"Ha! I got you Shikamaru!" Ino shouted as her arm shot straight into the air, finger pointed at the ceiling. "Empty out that bank account and pay up for the lady and her good friend Chouji! And don't forget about your own bill as well… at least you're lucky I don't have much of an appetite." The grin on her face was that of pure evil.
Shikamaru looked over to Chouji with a flabbergasted look on his face. As soon as his eyes fell on the even more evil grin of Chouji, he knew he had the victory. "Well, you got me Ino. Looks like I will have to pay for the three of us after all." "I can't wait to see the look on her face once I tell her."
Chouji's laughter erupted from across the table. Chouji knew exactly what was going on now. "Seriously, Ino should know better by now to never accept a challenge by Shikamaru, because if Shikamaru has enough energy to plan out something and go through with it, its almost a guarantee that he will win." Chouji banged his palms on the table hard enough to make quite a bit of noise and rattle the plates, bowls, and nearly empty glasses of water, knowing that it would not only make sure Ino never had the chance to concentrate but also would give Shikamaru the signal that he knew what was going on.
Sure enough, Chouji's banging on the table not only kept Ino from thinking, but also forced her to grab at her almost spilled glass of water which had nearly fell off the side of the table. While Ino was busy with the glass of water, Chouji took advantage of her looking away and gave Shikamaru a thumbs up. "Ha, he wins this one so easily. Actually, it wasn't fair to begin with. She was missing a bit of information. Still, her fault for taking part in the bet I guess."
"Luckily it's the duty of an upstanding gentlemen like myself to pay for the lady. So this bet doesn't hurt me at all Ino." Shikamaru declared in a told you so voice.
Ino returned to a normal sitting posture, placing her glass back towards the center of the table. After a quick glare at Chouji, she returned to the conversation. "What do you mean it won't hurt you any? Clearly the bet was that if Chouji wasn't here when we arrived, you would pay for the lunch for the group. Even though you only had a water, which will cost you here, you still have Chouji's bill to pay!"
"Well, hate to ruin you moment Ino, but I suppose I could let you in on a few pieces of information. First of all, I think it is important for me to state that I do plan on paying the bill for all three of us. Next, I would like to say that I still do plan to reveal what was in the letter given to me by the Hokage. Would you like to sit there and ponder how that is possible or would you like for me to let you in on a little secret?"
The changes on Ino's face were perfect. With each word, her face took a more and more defeated appearance. As soon as Shikamaru said the word secret though, so much anger appeared that the average person would expect to hear a growl. "What… secret?" she snarled.
"Well, you see Chouji and I don't have to pay for this meal today. Free meals at the restaurant here for the rest of the month due to the 'outstanding effort' put forth on my achieving rank of Chunin and first mission as a leader. Oh, and Chouji gets free meals until he builds himself back to around where he was before he took those pills during the retrieval." Shikamaru finished.
"What? No way? Who in the world would give someone free meals for a month because they became a Chunin? Who has that authority? Its almost as if the person thought of a reward for Chouji then decided to just lump you in with it too to save time!" Ino shrieked angrily.
"You know, I never thought of it that way, but I bet you're right Ino. When the Hokage wrote out this letter here, I'm almost certain she decided to give everyone on the mission the same reward to save time and energy." Shikamaru teased. "I wonder how long it will take her to realize that not only did I just deliver on the second part of the bet by revealing what was in the letter, but also that I had the whole thing set up?"
Ino's fit of rage roughly seven seconds later answered his question. No matter how worked up she was right now, he knew it would become serious when he revealed that unlike the letters received by Chouji and the rest of the group that went on the Sasuke retrieval mission, Shikamaru's letter, after the first paragraph that granted everyone that took part free meals for a month at select locations, had a second part also written by the Hokage herself. Shikamaru was certain of what had the Hokage's attention when she wrote out the letters to send to everyone. He knew what was bothering her, not allowing her to think of more personal rewards for the failed mission. The second part of the letter was what her focus was on.
"A bet is a bet, I do have to tell them about the second part of the letter. I'd tell them anyways. No other team in Konoha is closer after all. Still, I'm having too much fun right now to ruin it."