Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me in any way, shape, or form. All characters used belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Summary: Once things start, there's no stopping where they go. ShikaIno. Rated T for language.

AN: So...a new project. It's going to be a series of semi-connected oneshots, all centered around the Konoha Corps de Ballet. Expect my usual pairings, but I'm open to character requests (ex. I'm probably not going to write about Gaara until someone asks for him). Hopefully, I haven't messed up the terminology yet.

So...enjoy!

Chapter 1-Momentum

by insert cliche

Yamanaka Ino was pissed.

Beyond pissed.

She was almost ready to rip her hair out in rage, and that was saying something. The last time she had felt such an all-encompassing fury was when Naruto had replaced all the pointe shoes in her dance bag with ones that had been dyed in a hideous shade of orange. Forced to wear the shoes out of necessity, Ino had been the laughingstock of the studio for days.

That had been a bad time for everyone. But right now, things were looking even worse.

She was not being stood up by her new pas de deux partner.

Just...no.

She had been waiting in the empty practice room for over two hours, and there was no sign of anyone arriving anytime soon. One of the principal dancers - Tenten? - had rushed by a few minutes ago, hair half-done and clothes askew, and Ino had seen her fellow dancer Hinata get escorted out by her hyperactive blonde partner. But not a single male had walked through the studio's revolving doors, and Ino was getting mad.

It didn't help that she didn't even know her partner's name. The last time she had asked Tsunade about it, her teacher had just smirked.

"Wait and see, Ino. It's always more fun this way."

More fun, her ass. The dancer stalked over to the barre and began stretching for a fourth time, letting her thoughts run rampant as she did. Being stood up was not fun in any way. It was stupid and annoying and impolite and-

"Troublesome," a voice sighed out from behind her.

The hell? She knew that voice.

Ino shrieked and turned around, pulling her leg off the barre as she did so. "You!"

Nara Shikamaru was slouching against the doorway, hands in his pockets and mumbling what sounded like variations of the words "troublesome," "what a drag," and "annoying" under his breath. A duffle bag was slung over one of his shoulders.

"Me." Shikamaru was completely unfazed by Ino's hissing, glaring, cousin-of-a-demon look.

"You!" she shrieked again. "Why the hell did you come so late!"

The boy sighed and rubbed his neck. "I fell asleep," he explained lamely.

"Two hours ago?! Do you not have an alarm?" Ino's voice was getting higher and higher.

"Uh...my roommate broke it." A shrug and another sigh.

"So you just decided to sleep and forget about everything? Do you know how long I was waiting? Remember how Tsunade told us to practice, because there's a huge performance in four months and...are you even listening to me?".

Shikamaru had deposited his bag in the corner of the room, pulled off his ratty sweatshirt to reveal a decent warm-up outfit, put on a pair of shoes, and walked to her side. He placed his leg on the barre in a smooth, fluid developé, and started to stretch, seemingly unaffected by Ino's rant.

"Nara! Are you listening?"

"Yeah, yeah. Troublesome."

Ino huffed and proceeded to ignore him. After walking away from the wooden barre, she started leaping, jumping, and pirouetting across the floor, waiting for her partner to finish so they could finally start doing something, goddammit.

After half an hour, when both dancers were fully stretched and ready, Shikamaru walked up to Ino from behind and placed his hands on her waist. She squawked indignantly, but did not try and make him let go.

"You ready?" His voice was low and soothing in her ear, a sharp contrast to her fiery countenance.

"I should be asking you that. You're the one who arrived two hours late."

He smirked. "Complain about that later. First..."

Ino found herself being pulled into preparation for a pirouette.

"Show me what you've got."

"You two seem to be doing pretty well," came a voice from the doorway.

Shikamaru lowered Ino to the ground slowly, making sure that she regained her balance before letting her go. The two of them looked over to see Tsunade, owner and principal choreographer of the Konoha Corps de Ballet, grinning and clapping her hands slowly.

Ino flushed. "Thank you," she murmured. "We've been doing okay."

Shikamaru winced inwardly. It had taken weeks for them to work out their differences and slowly form a cohesive pas de deux pair. Ino was always faster, raring to go, while Shikamaru danced slowly, each step calculated and perfect. They were...different, and it had taken far too long to figure out how to dance together.

But things had gotten better. Ino trusted Shikamaru now, even when he was holding her in the air with a single hand, or when he led her in promenades. Shikamaru knew that Ino trusted him, and fitted each of his steps to hers.

Tsunade spoke again. "Since you two seem to be doing better than some of the other new pairs, I want you to try the Coppélia pas de deux, with Swanilda and Frantz."

Shikamaru blinked. "I thought that you already had understudies?"

Tsunade nodded. "I do, but Naruto and Hinata aren't doing as well as I hoped. Perhaps you two can do better. Of course, you might never get to dance it, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

Ino smiled. "We'd love to!"

Their teacher smirked. "Good luck. I'm warning you, it's not going to be easy." With that, she walked out and shut the door.

Silence reigned, until Ino shook her head and looked at her partner. "I don't know about you, but I wanna beat them."

Shikamaru grinned. "I do too." He held out his hand to her, and she accepted.

"Let's do this!"

Whack.

"Shikamaru, you idiot!"

"The hell was that for?! What did I do wrong this time?"

""You fucking dropped me, that's what you did!"

"I did not! What makes you think that?"

"You let go too soon! What if I had fallen?"

"I didn't let you go early, and you didn't fall! What's the problem now?"

"What if I did? Huh?"

"Do you know how hard it is to keep someone like youup?"

"..."

"W-wait, Ino! I didn't mean-"

Slap.

"Ino! Wait a second!"

Slam.

"...fuck."

Ino was pissed.

Beyond pissed.

That lazy ass had the nerve to call her fat! After dancing with her for almost two months, and he said she was friggin' obese?! Did he not see the hell she was putting herself through every day, just to maintain her weight? She wasn't lucky like the other girls, she actually had to work hard to keep herself fit!

That bastard.

She hated him, hated him, hated him, hated him. And she...

...goddammit, why did he have to make her cry, too?

She felt miserable. They had both been idiots, and she had been the stupider of the two. Why did she have to overreact all the time? One comment, one slap, and everything they had built up together was crumbling down.

Why was she so fucking stupid?

Ino was so lost in her self-bashing train of thought that she didn't notice the pair of pointe shoes lying on the floor until she tripped over them. She was just about to let loose a string of expletives when something poking out from under the satin ribbons caught her eye. A quick tug, and two notes fluttered to the ground.

She unfolded the paper that said "1."

I'm sorry. Forgive me?

They really were idiots, weren't they? But she knew that deep down inside, she had already forgiven him long ago.

Ino moved onto the second note

Of course you did. :)

See you at noon. That lift's not going to perfect itself.

-S

...review?