A/N: This is for my friend Tiannie! She requested this fic, and the plot was her idea! (:

Ballroom Dancing

Nara Shikamaru leaned against the rose-tinted walls of the grand ballroom, surveying the crowd lazily. He held a glass in one hand, but it was full. He wasn't in the mood to drink tonight. He'd been here for an hour. In this exact spot, to be precise. And he wasn't moving. Ballroom dancing had never been his idea of an enjoyable evening. He would leave that to people like Kiba.

Shikamaru resisted the urge to growl, and sulked instead. All that perfume, scented candles, classical music, soft murmurs… He could feel a headache coming on. He wished for the ten thousandth time that night that he could be working on his new jutsu.

He was only here on the request of Tsunade, who wouldn't take no for an answer. Kages were all like that. It was an occasion for all the shinobis to relax and enjoy themselves, so no one was allowed to skip. It would have been rude and politically incorrect to do so, in any case.

Shikamaru had gone through roughly eleven plans in his head on how to escape this, but eventually decided against every one of them because they were either too troublesome, or would have resulted in his ass getting fired.

So right now, he was stuck here. Medokuse.

Various shinobi were hooking up as he continued to laze. In the corner of his eye, Shikamaru could see Sasuke Uchiha over by the other end of the ballroom, also against the wall like him. But with one big difference. There was a small circle of hopeful girls standing casually by him. Like they were waiting for him to ask them to dance, or something.

Shikamaru snorted. Some chance of that ever happening. Or perhaps they were working up the guts to ask him, themselves.

He rolled his eyes, managing to chance a peek around himself at the same time. Nope, no girls. It figured. Sasuke would be the one all the females were interested in, even though he hated them. It was ironic that the best-looking guy in the entire village of Konoha happened to be gay. Of course, this was only Shikamaru's speculation, but since he was a genius, he was quite sure it was accurate speculation.

The Uchiha had his eyes on only one person tonight. And that person was currently dancing with the prettiest girl in all of Konoha, Haruno Sakura. It was no wonder the guy was in such a bad mood. Shikamaru could practically feel the heat from Sasuke's glare from all across the ballroom.

Ah, he was an idiot, that one. The Uchiha was a prodigy, but an idiot nevertheless. Shikamaru swirled his wine. Sasuke could take care of his own problems. Shikamaru had long learned to stay out of other people's relationship issues. It was the wise –

"Shikamaru!" Something blond hurtled into him, and the wine glass went flying.

"Ow, dammit, Naruto!" Shikamaru yelped, as Naruto wrapped trembling fingers about his collar.

Naruto ignored him, and instead fixed him with the full intensity of his baby blues. "Shikamaru, you have got to help me. I can't dance for nuts! Sakura must think I'm a complete idiot!"

Trapped, Shikamaru glanced behind him. The pink-haired girl was a distance away, looking slightly flushed, and there was a trace of a smile on her face as she conversed with Ino. She looked up, and waved to someone behind Shikamaru.

Shikamaru turned to see Naruto relinquish his grip on the collar for a second to wave back. Then the blond grabbed Shikamaru again. Shikamaru sighed.

"See that? She's talking to Ino about me! I knew it!" Naruto hissed.

Shikamaru wondered where all this paranoia had come from. "I don't know, she looks pretty happy to me."

"Shikamaru! I need your help!" Naruto yelled into the lazy nin's face.

"Okay, okay, calm down, Naruto. What do you want me to do?" Shikamaru asked, backing away slightly and knowing he was going to regret what was coming.

"Help me dance! Use your kagemane!"

"What?!" Shikamaru hollered. He was sure he'd heard wrong.

"I said, do your kagemane on me! Please! Just for the next dance, I swear! It's important!" Naruto pleaded.

Shikamaru stared at him. Was the guy insane? There was no way Shikamaru was going to dance using kagemane. He would look stupid. Real idiotic. He was about to open his mouth to refuse, when Naruto cut in.

"Shit, there's no time, the song's starting. You gotta help me!" The blond looked frantic.

"Uh, sure." Dammit. It was hard to say no to Naruto when he got like this.

"Thanks man, I owe you one!" Naruto disappeared into the crowd to find Sakura.

Shikamaru frowned, snatching a glass of red wine from a waiter who walked past. He downed its contents in one gulp. Not everyone knew this, but Shikamaru had about as high a tolerance for alcohol as Rock Lee. That being the point, since he usually grew braver once he got drunk.

Throwing the glass on the floor, Shikamaru did some hand seals. "I was dying to perfect my new jutsu anyway," he mumbled to himself. "Good time to try it out." The next moment, he was gone.

Grinning drunkenly, Shikamaru looked down at himself.

Nothing.

He waved his hands in front of him.

Still nothing, just air.

Awesome. His jutsu was working.

No one could see him now, not even himself. Shikamaru turned about in glee, checking to see if he really was invisible. Just then, the violins in the orchestra started to play. Shit, he had to hurry if he wanted to help Naruto. Muttering again, Shikamaru did some hand seals, and his shadow, now faintly visible, narrowed and elongated. It navigated its way through the crowd until it reached Naruto's, and fused with it.

Shikamaru smirked. Maybe he was going to enjoy this.

Straightening his posture, Shikamaru moved along to the sway of the music, stepping backwards and forwards, allowing Naruto to steer Sakura. Shikamaru was a good dancer. Ino had forced him to practice with her for a few weeks before this and said he was a natural, apparently. Shikamaru didn't like to think he was one at ballroom dancing. Too stiff for his liking.

As the cellos came in, Shikamaru decided it was time to do something slightly more interesting. Infusing chakra into his legs, he twirled more forcefully. Fortunately, there wasn't anyone near him. His new jutsu didn't prevent him from bumping into people. A few feet away, Sakura giggled as Naruto wrapped an arm about her waist to spin her around.

A small crowd was watching the dancing couple. Naruto looked impossibly gorgeous in his black tux, and Sakura was simply lovely in her shimmering blue dress. Together, they were mesmerizing.

Shikamaru laughed to himself. This wasn't so bad, actually. However, he stopped smiling when his eyes roved to where a certain black-haired shinobi stood, looking murderous. Sasuke's hands were clenched into fists, he was shaking with barely-concealed rage, and he looked ready to explode when Naruto and Sakura whirled past him gracefully in a series of complicated steps, lost in each other's gaze.

A gleam came into Shikamaru's eyes as an idea presented itself to him in his mind. He supposed, that just for tonight, he could do the Uchiha a favor. There was something he had to thank the bastard for.

And so, the genius got down on his hands and knees, did a handstand, and promptly started headspinning. He didn't need to look in Naruto's direction to know that the blond had followed. After all, his kagemane had never failed him before.

I'm going to kill Shikamaru! Naruto's brain screamed, before his entire body started spinning on the floor. Despite being unable to see anything, he knew just about everyone had their gazes trained on him. What the hell? What was Shikamaru thinking? Or not thinking? This was fucking embarrassing! And Sakura was watching!

"What are you doing, Naruto?" Sakura asked incredulously, stepping out of Naruto's way.

"Trust me, I'm not doing this! It's not my fault!" Naruto managed to gasp out as he disappeared into a blur. He couldn't believe he was spinning on his head! Was it even physically possible? And dammit it hurt!

"Naruto! If you don't stop right this minute, I'm leaving!" Sakura shouted, getting annoyed.

Naruto tried his hardest to will his muscles to stop moving, but it was impossible. They weren't listening to him anymore. Shikamaru's kagemane had him in a death grip. "I… can't!" he panted.

"Fine." Sakura said icily.

"Sakura, wait!"

The crowd gasped as Sakura turned and walked off, her six-inch heels making a loud clatter on the cold marble dance floor. She threw the doors of the ballroom open, and slammed them with a resounding boom. A 'poof' sound was heard from the other side of the doors, indicating that she'd teleported away.

Meanwhile, Shikamaru had made Naruto stop spinning. The blond twirled a few more times before coming to a gentle stop, groaning slightly. The shinobis clustered around him started talking at once.

"Man, Naruto, what the hell was that?"

"You know you totally pissed Haruno off, don't you?"

"Seriously, what were you thinking?"

Naruto got to his feet slowly, the world swaying in his vision. He didn't have the strength to speak, he didn't even trust himself to open his mouth. He was going to head to Shikamaru and beat him into a bloody pulp... when his body started moving of its own accord. Oh, fucking christ, here we go again. When was the fucker going to stop? A vein pulsed in Naruto's forehead.

He definitely wasn't going to be responsible for his actions later.

Shikamaru bit back a hoot of laughter at Naruto's expression. The blond looked like he wanted to strangle someone. And chances were, it wasn't Sakura. Shikamaru knew he was in trouble since he couldn't win Naruto in a fair fight, but right now he couldn't care less. He was having way too much fun.

Grinning maniacally, Shikamaru started popping. Keeping his upper body totally still, he glided across the floor. The crowd's eyes were threatening to spring from their heads, just watching Naruto. Shikamaru wanted to laugh. He could do the moonwalk pretty well, too. Breakdancing happened to be one of his many secret interests, actually. He just didn't get to go public with it often. Admittedly though, this wasn't exactly the place to show off his skills. It had completely the wrong atmosphere and music.

Whatever. It was Naruto who was getting all the attention.

To his surprise, a few shinobis in the crowd had started mimicking Naruto's actions. Shikamaru smirked. Oh yeah. Ballroom dancing was so boring, he really needed to teach them some new moves. Show them what it really meant to dance with the heart, the soul, the mind.

Before long, all the shinobis were doing some version of the floorglide. It was eerily funny to watch them as they slid sideways across the floor, laughing at each other. It looked like the shinobis learnt fast.

"This is crazy, dude! Who taught you that!"

"Someone put some real music on!"

Seconds later, "Low" by Flo Rida was blasting through the ballroom.

apple bottom jeans jeans
boots with the fur with the fur
the whole club was lookin at her
she hit the flo she hit the flo
next thing you know
shawty got low low low low low low low low

Yeah, that was helluvalot better. Shikamaru supposed not everyone here was a classical music fan. Undoing his invisibility jutsu, he sprang into existence once more, this time jumping right to the middle of the dance floor to join Naruto. Hoots erupted when the shinobis realized Shikamaru could dance. Naruto was getting his fair share of attention, since he was doing the exact same actions. They danced together in perfect syncronization as the crowd formed a circle around them.

Before long, everyone had joined in, moving to the music and the beat. The girls had kicked off their heels, and the guys had lost their ties. No more stupid ballroom moves. When Shikamaru's chakra ran out and his jutsu wore off, Naruto was too busy dancing with other people to look for him, much less settle the score.

Right in the middle of all the action, Shikamaru spared a glance in the direction of the stoic Uchiha. Sasuke was finally walking away from the wall, and Shikamaru could have sworn he gave him a wink.

Shikamaru smirked in reply.

Jaws hit the floor as Uchiha Sasuke himself started cartwheeling on the dance floor. Shikamaru snickered. It was about time Sasuke stepped into the limelight. The guy was a pro. He'd been Shikamaru's breakdancing coach for about two years, so he would know. Sasuke had some pretty sick moves.

They would certainly be enough to win over a certain blond shinobi who was currently staring at Sasuke in complete and utter shock.

"You both owe me," Shikamaru chuckled, and he launched himself into a particularly ferocious headspin amidst screams of appreciation.

-end-