Disclaimer: yayaya…I own nothing but the plot )
A/N: you could say this was a side story of Snow Princess…then again, it might not be )
"You're so CUTE!" squealed from rabid fan girls.
A girl standing by the tree scoffed. Another day of training for their team, means another day of hearing girls throw themselves at the feet of her teammate. She turns and walks away, muttering something along the lines of, "This time, you're on your own." But like any other day she walked away, she'd always return, throw a couple of kunais, pin the girls to a tree and giving the same excuse over and over again, "They were getting annoying." But secretly, she knew that she wanted his attention toward herself. But she would never say it; it's not in her personality to admit something so…real. Of course, when she got really annoyed by him, she would just smirk, straighten out her voice and voice out her high pitch squeal, just like the other girls, "YOU'RE SO CUTE!"
Of course he knew she did it on purpose. He'll never tell her, but he'll never hint her. The only thing he didn't know was that every time the pack of girls came, she would walk further and further away from him. She was always smiling, so no one knew, that every time a girl declared her love for him, she would take a step back. And eventually, she ended up walking behind him, never in front of him anymore.
So in came the third girl. She was spunky, feisty and way bossier. She left winks, blew kisses, sent love notes and flirted with him every single minute she was there. But she was doing it for kicks, no real emotion involved, after a while, seeing her "rival" back down, her winks, kisses, notes, hugs and other what notes become less frequent as if they were screaming to him, look back, turn around, just stop walking.
One day, the girl wasn't there to scoff at the fan girls. She wasn't there to come back and pin them to a tree, nor was she there to annoy the heck out of him. You'd think he'll be relieved, you'd think he'd be happy, but it only made him realize, that maybe, just maybe, he should finally turn around to see what's there. And so he did. He didn't expect to see the girl with tears in her eyes, nor did he expect the distance between her and him to be that great.
So with a scoff, he gently pushed his fans aside, and walked toward his teammate.
"Nara Shikamaru. It took you long enough to turn around."
"Yamanaka Ino, its always better to be later then never." And he was right, although he may had almost lost his chance, he came right back, and he came right back to hold her in his arms.