He was the laziest shinobi in the whole leaf village, and probably the whole world. On good days you could find him staring up at the clouds on a soft grassy hill, sleeping, or shiftlessly smoking a cigarette by his favorite sitting area near the hokage's building. But that, was on a good day, and all he could concentrate on, at the moment, was his best friend and teammate who was unconsciously laying in his arms. To make things worse, they were both drenched from the stone-cold pouring rain. However, Shikamaru didn't notice himself quivering at all, he was too bent on keeping Ino warm. Even as the rain pelted unmercifully at the back of his neck and on his gentle and strong arms, he continued to push through the weather determined to get to her safely to her apartment.
When he finally reached the steps to her faded and chipped door, it took him a while to be able to hold most of her body with one arm while he tensely reached into her skirt pocket to grab the keys.
Ino partly opened her icy blue eyes to meet his worn expression while he fiddled with the lock in attempt to get them out of the rain. "S-Sasuke…" Ino groaned cuddling closer to his chest. Shikamaru sighed and shook his head slowly. "Sorry Ino, he's not here, it's just me, no one special."
Ino closed her eyes slowly and fell into unconsciousness again just as Shikamaru was finally able to push the stubborn door open. He thanked what ever god there was silently, because if the door hadn't ever opened soon, he would have dropped Ino.
He laid her down on her purple covered bed and soon after collapsed on her white carpet from exhaustion. He was shaking uncontrollably now, he felt like he had never done so much work in his entire life, being the laziest shinobi and all. He finally managed to push himself back up and summon enough energy to open her closet door, and pull out some jean shorts and a big T-shirt. He sniffed the shirt wondering who's it was realizing it was much to big for Ino. His heart sunk at that moment and he felt and angry feeling take it's place. "Sasuke." He growled.
Shikamaru undid Ino's top, and removed her wet clothes, replacing them with the makeshift ones he had found piled in the black hole she called her closet. It wasn't like he hadn't ever done any of this before, in fact he thought the situation was becoming too familiar. At least he was able to swallow his feelings for her, enough to where he could help her get into some warm and dry clothes without totally drooling over her exposed body. She never knew it was him who always dragged her drunk ass home when she had been too wasted to walk every night. She always just assumed it was her boyfriend Sasuke, who wasn't ever faithful to her for more then a millisecond. When Ino went to the bars with Sasuke, the first thing he would do was grab a bunch of sake and meet up with his "friends", leaving Ino alone to drink herself away and watch him totally cheat on her in front of her very eyes.
Then there was always Shikamaru who followed her every night and safely anchored himself in the dark corner of a bar, concealed where she couldn't see him, and close enough to wear he could make sure she was ok. He knew that she was dying inside, but every time Chouji, their other teammate, and Shikamaru told her that Sasuke was bad news for her, she would just weakly smile gratefully for their concern and say, "he just needs time."
Shikamaru had enough with that though. Ino wouldn't ever break it off with Sasuke, no matter how much he cheated right in front of her, no matter how much he got drunk, no matter how much he managed to break Ino's heart and get her drunk. He wanted to do something horrible to her bastard of a boyfriend, but for Ino he stayed clear and let her make her own childish decisions. Shikamaru knew that if their sensei Asuma, and Ino's parents were still alive, none of this would be happening. But, at least she had him to look after her, not that it mattered, she didn't even know the truth.
"What am I thinking?" Shikamaru thought to himself. "Get a grip buddy, it's not like she thinks of you as anything more then her friend/teammate. What are you thinking? Somehow she'll leave her oh so "perfect" boyfriend for you? Give yourself a break."
Shikamaru plopped onto Ino's purple couch outside her bedroom, still wet and shivering to himself. His own apartment (which was inexplicably messier then Ino's closet) was just three doors down, but he was too tired to move his legs anymore, and his body felt like it was in the land of snow instead of leaves. He curled up into a ball on her couch and looked wearily around the room at the purple walls, purple rug, and purple vases. He rolled his eyes, "troublesome…everything has to be purple."
Soon he found himself closing his eyes, feeling like he had attached 1000 pounds to each eyelid, and his analytically genius brain drifted off and spaced out. The last thing she heard was the ticking of the purple clock in Ino's kitchen.
