Shikamaru sat beside his phone. It was getting close two in the morning and his girlfriend, Ino, still hadn't called to say where she was. He and Ino had been living together for a few months now. Ino had decided that she wanted to take the next step and move in with him, but since then they hadn't done much together. Shikamaru suspected that Ino wanted to move in with him because she was having problems finding a job, and didn't have the money pay for her own house. In other words, she was being a freeloader now. He didn't really know what to do with her, but he was sure that she was just using him. The clock finally hit two in the morning, and Shikamaru slowly fell asleep by the phone as he wondered where Ino was.

Shikamaru woke up to his 'girlfriend' yelling at him to get up. "Shikamaru Nara, aren't you going to say goodbye to me before I go out and look for another job today?!" Ino asked angrily. "And why are you sleeping here? I was looking for you last night when I got home, but I was too tired to look hard." Shikamaru blinked and looked up at Ino. Ino was wearing a mini skirt and a belly shirt. She was wearing her normal all purple, and Shikamaru thought she looked more like she was going out to pick up boys then get a job. Shikamaru stretched and yawned.

"I should actually be asking you where you've been. You were gone for a long time last night," he said getting up from the chair he was sitting on.

"I was at a Sakura's birthday party and lost track of the time," she said quickly turning to face the door, as she did a piece of paper fell out of her bag. Shikamaru picked it up and looked at it. 'Sai' was written on it with a little heart and a phone number. He stuffed the note in his pocket not bothering to tell Ino it fell. It was the third note he found this month. He looked back at Ino and she was at the door. "Well I'll see you tonight," she said winking and blowing a kiss at Shikamaru. Shikamaru just nodded and let out a soft sigh as Ino closed the door. Ino was gone.

Ino came home late again that night. This time Shikamaru stayed up watching TV so he could talk to her when she got in. He got up from the couch he was on and walked over to her. "You were out late again today, I missed you," he said hugging her. She smelt like men's cologne, and it wasn't his.

"I missed you too," he said a little nervously. She had gone stiff as soon as Shikamaru had wrapped his arms around her. Then she pushed him away and walked by him.

"So where were you tonight?" Shikamaru asked Ino as he followed her to the stairs.

"Well I couldn't find any jobs I liked, so Tenten, Hinata, and Sakura took me out to a pity dinner. I didn't really want to go, but they insisted. Then we went over to Hinata's and watched a few movies," she told him in a casual, cool, voice.

"Well I'm glad you had fun with your friends," Shikamaru said. "I don't care if you get a job or not right now, because I just want you to be happy. And I trust you, and know you'll get a job to help me out when I really need it." Ino started to go faster up the stairs and into their room.

"Uh, yeah," she said. "Um, I need to have a bath now; I had a very long and hard day job hunting and need to relax." Shikamaru nodded and Ino went into the bathroom in their room, and closed the door. Shikamaru changed into his pyjama and crawled into bed, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. His head was full of thoughts of what Ino was really doing every night and about the paper with the name Sai on it.

Shikamaru woke up the next morning with Ino sleeping in the bed peacefully beside him. He sat up and Ino moved a little waking up slightly. "What are you doing, go back to sleep. It's the weekend, you don't have to go to work today," she told him in a tired groan.

"I just have a lot on my mind and can't sleep," he told her. She sat up too.

"Like what?" she asked yawning.

"Never mind," Shikamaru told her. Ino shook her head.

"What's on your mind, I might be able to help," she told him. Shikamaru looked at her with a serious look on his face.

"Tell me the truth," he said. "Is there someone other than me? Are you seeing another guy behind my back?" Ino gave a nervous laugh.

"Of cores not, you're the only one for me," she told him. "Now let's go back to sleep."

"Actually," Shikamaru said getting up. "Chouji and I are going to go out and do something this weekend. We'll probably be gone until tomorrow night. I'm sorry I can't spend time with you this weekend, but we've been planning this trip for a week."

"Oh no, it's no problem. You and Chouji go have fun, I'll just have Tenten come over for the weekend," Ino said in a way that was a little too happy for Shikamaru. Shikamaru smiled at Ino, thanked her for understanding, and got dressed. Then he left the house.

Shikamaru got in his car and drove off to Chouji's house. He didn't actually have any plans with his best friend this weekend, and instead was planning on something else. He got to Chouji's house and walked in through the front door. "Chouji, I need to talk to you!" he yelled through the house. Chouji came running down the stairs as fast as he could.

"I swear I didn't do it!" he yelled as he stopped in front of Shikamaru.

"Didn't do what?" Shikamaru asked a little confused. Chouji paused for a second.

"I don't know, when someone yells at me like that yelling 'I didn't do it' is just my first reaction," he told him with a shrug. "So what do you need anyways?"

"I need to stay here for the weekend," Shikamaru told him. Chouji sighed.

"You finally breaking up with your girl and she doesn't have anywhere to go and your too kind so you're letting her live in your house?" he asked. Shikamaru shook his head.

"No, but if my theory is true then I will be breaking up with her this weekend," he said taking off his shoes and walking into the house. "But I need to stay here in the mean time." Chouji nodded and agreed to let Shikamaru stay there. He would do anything for Shikamaru because they were best friends, and he really hated Ino. So he would help with anything that involved her finally leaving Shikamaru's life.

Chouji and Shikamaru sat in Chouji's car across from Shikamaru and Ino's house. It was just after dinner and there was a car parked in the driveway. Shikamaru had told Chouji all about what he thought about Ino. About how he thought she was cheating on him and how he wanted to see if he was right of not. "Do you think it's her secret lover's car?" Chouji asked. "Or is it just Sakura's or one of her other friends?"

"Well," Shikamaru started. "Sakura can't drive at all, Hinata doesn't need to drive because she doesn't usually go anywhere because she's too busy at home, and Tenten just gets other people to drive her around. So I think our best bet would be it's the person she's cheating on me with."

"Well how are we going to know for sure?" Chouji asked.

"All the lights in the house are off, so this would be the perfect time to call her and see if they're doing anything," he said. "Give me your cell phone and put on the radio." Chouji pulled out his cell phone out, and turned the cars radio on. Then Shikamaru phoned his house and put it on speaker as him and Chouji watched the bedroom window carefully. The bedroom light in the house turned on and a shadow sat up from the bed, then Ino answered the phone panting a little.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Hey Ino its Shikamaru, how are you?" he asked.
"Oh I'm good, it's boring here without you though," she said. Shikamaru heard a guys voice in the background asking about who Ino was talking to, and Ino just tell him be quiet.
"Who was that?" Shikamaru asked her.
"No one, just the TV," she said. "I'm in the living room watching it." Chouji and Shikamaru looked at each other and Chouji held back from laughing.
"Ok, well I need to go. I was just calling to see how you were doing. And Chouji is begging me to let us go eat, we haven't had supper yet," Shikamaru told Ino. Chouji grabbed the phone.
"Yeah, now hurry up and say goodbye to him so we can get going!" he half yelled into the phone. Ino laughed.
"Alright, alright, goodbye Shikamaru, I'll see you when you get back," she said hanging up the phone. Shikamaru and Chouji turned the phone off and watched from the car as another shadow sat up in the bed. It pushed Ino's shadow down back onto the bed and the bedroom light went off.

The next day, and after the car that was at the house was gone, Shikamaru went back and knocked on the front door. Ino answered the door with a surprised look on her face. "W-what are you doing home?" she asked nervously.

"I just couldn't stay a whole weekend away from you," he told her with a smile on his face. "So whose car was that pulling out of the driveway just now?" Ino laughed.

"Oh that was just someone driving Tenten home, you know her. She can't drive herself, always getting other people," she told him. She looked so innocent, but he voice sounded so guilty. Shikamaru frowned and crossed his arms.

"I already know all about what you're hiding, Ino, you don't need to act so innocent," he told her.

"W-What do you mean?" she asked.

"The guilt in your voice gives you away," he told her. She didn't say anything. "Yeah, you know exactly what I mean," Shikamaru said. Ino just continued to stand there, not saying anything. She looked confused as to how Shikamaru knew about anything. "I've known about this for a long time, Ino, and I've been hinting about it to you. But I guess you just didn't get it," he told her. "How does it feel when you two kiss when you know that I've trusted you? And do you think about me when you guys are having your fun every night? Could you be more obscene?"

Ino backed away from the still open front door that Shikamaru was standing in. Shikamaru walked into the house and closed the door following her into the living room. She sat down on the couch and looked up at Shikamaru realizing that there was no way out of this one. "I-" she started. "What I mean is that I'm-" Shikamaru cut her off.

"Don't try to say you're sorry," Shikamaru told her. "Don't even try to make it right, because it's too late, Ino, it's too late for any of that now. This has been going on for a month! I've found the notes with the names of those guys! You can look into my eyes and pretend all you want that you're sorry, but I know your love is a lie! You're nothing but a lie and I don't want to have anything to do with you anymore!" Ino looked up at Shikamaru with tears in her eyes.

"B-But I really do love you, and I really am sorry!" she yelled.

"If you were sorry you wouldn't have done it in the first place! Now get your things, and get the hell out of my house! I don't ever want to see you again!" Shikamaru yelled at her pointing at the door.

"B-But I don't have any place to go," Ino told him.

"What do you mean you have no place to go? Go to Sai's house, go to Sakura's house, or go to Tenten's house! Go anywhere but here!" he told her. Ino looked at him with a scared look in her eyes, but she got up, got all her things, gave her key back that she had for the house, and left in a rush.

****

Chouji and Shikamaru sat in the bar. Chouji insisted that he take Shikamaru out to cheer him up. It had been a week since Shikamaru kicked Ino out of his house, and he still wasn't over it. Chouji asked the bar tender for two drinks and looked at Shikamaru. "You need to get over her, she's not worth being sad over," he told him.

"I know, but we were dating for so long, even living together, and in the end it was all a lie. She just wanted to freeload off me," he said with a sigh.

"Oh come on, there will be better girl then she could ever be that will come along for you. You just wait," Chouji told him. Shikamaru sighed again.

"I guess you could be right," he said as a girl with blond hair up in four buns sat down beside him on the stool. She looked over at him and smiled.

"Why so glum bubble gum?" she asked. Shikamaru looked at her and she laughed. "My name's Temari, what's yours?" she asked sticking her hand out for him to shake it. He did.

"Shikamaru," he told her with a smile.