It started with her asking him how to play shogi one day. In hindsight, someone as clever as Shikamaru really should have expected it. Ino never did anything without a reason; there was always a method to that troublesome kunoichi's madness. However, he hadn't thought when he had just eyed her and said yes.
That day Ino wore a t-shirt with clouds stretched over her…
"Checkmate. Go home, Ino and read the rules."
"How is that a checkmate?! I still have my knight!" She insisted, hands on her hips.
Shikamaru sighed and stared at the chessboard, just to humour her and pointed out each of her pieces, which narrowed down to three pawns and one bishop.
"You haven't got any knights left Ino. Your king is dead."
"NO! You see that knight-"
"That's my knight," he explained with a patience he didn't really possess at this hour. He needed a nap but he suppressed a yawn in case Ino lectured him about manners and etiquette when conversing with a lady. Pfft. Lady? More like a screaming harpie.
"Aha!" Ino began with relish, tossing her hair behind her shoulder and pointing to his knight again. "See, that's where you're wrong. That happens to be myknight but he's just working undercover. So yeah, he already poisoned your king and when your queen heard that, she flew back to her palace and mourned for his death forever. In the end, my King lived to a ripe old age and ruled the kingdom with pizzaz~"
…
…
Shikamaru just stared at her. She didn't understand shogi one bit and clearly wasn't intent on wanting to improve her knowledge. So why was she wearing a too-tight t-shirt and asking for another game?
"If I win this game, you're paying for dinner tomorrow, okay?"
And she was looking at him with malachite eyes and an ambiguous smile and he was mentally kicking himself for not realising what day it was tomorrow.
The annual kunoichi dance. Shikamaru sighed. Sasuke or some other pretty boy must have turned her down and she didn't have a date to the dance and since Temari wasn't here, she was using him. Who did she think he was? He wasn't going to allow himself to be used like this, especially since Ino had 'standards' and a million rules for how to sit and behave and oh god… she'd expect him to dance of all things. No way in hell was he going to accept the wily kunoichi's offer.
"Troublesome… what time?"
He caved.