Nara Shikamaru is a genius; a genius with an IQ of over 200, they say

Warnings and Disclaimers: I do not own Naruto, because if I did I'd have a bunch of sexy ninjas worshipping me. :)

Summary: ShikaxIno One has to learn that some things need to be let go of, and other things need to be held onto.

Letting Go

Nara Shikamaru is a genius; a genius with an IQ of over 200, they say.

He doesn't care much for the number of his IQ, he simply cares for his occasional games of Shogi, his team mates and some teachers, getting married, being successful, having children, getting retired, and dying before his wife. Not too much to ask, right?

However, at the moment he also cared to get the fight he was currently in over with and going home to play his occasional game of Shogi, see his team mates and teachers, and perhaps get off his lazy ass and go find a prospective wife like that plain girl down the lane.

Ducking a swarm of shuriken, Shikamaru cursed under his breath, "This sucks…"

Using his uncared for IQ of over 200, Shikamaru quickly devised a few hundred possible plans to get out of his situation, and quickly narrowed that number down to three.

They were all good plans, there was no reason for him to simply pick one out; they'd all work perfectly in this situation and the three young ninjas-to-be currently chasing him through the treetops were in perfect positions to execute the plan. So, with such a difficult choice to make, Shikamaru pulled out a coin from his back pocket and flung it forward a few yards, watching it slip through his fingers as he let it go. Before it dropped below waist level, he caught it in his left hand and looked at it.

Tails.

"Plan number two it is," the 18-year-old mumbled before landing on the next branch in front of him and pivoting on his right foot, flinging himself straight through the three prospective ninjas and effectively startling them out of the trees.

They squealed rather pitifully as they plummeted through the trees before letting out a gasp as, one by one, they landed stomach or chest first on the arms or back of their teacher. Cursing under his breath as he dumped his cargo on the grass-padded ground, Shikamaru pulled out a red marker and uncapped it quickly.

Without much trouble or struggling from the three exhausted and shaken up ninjas, Shikamaru quickly drew three large "F's" on the kids' heads.

"You guys took too long, again, and went over the one hour limit, again, and therefore did not succeed in catching me, again," He sighed in annoyance, "Sorry Tsuchi, Hikaru, Momo; you all fail… again."

Ignoring the groans of protest, Shikamaru waved goodbye to his oldest students and let go of the marker—he was already several metres away by the time it thudded softly on the ground.

As soon as he was within two metres of the Fifth's door, he knew that she was having one of those days.

Holding his breath as he stepped through the door, Shikamaru nodded to his village leader, dropped his mission papers on the desk, and headed straight out the door again; ignoring the shouted bickering between the two blondes.

Letting his breath go with a sigh, Shikamaru headed to the stairs outside the Hokage building. "Naruto's done something stupid again."

He was beginning to make his way down to the streets when the shouting blonde from before shot past him in an Orange blur. "Hey Shikamaru! Old Lady Tsunade wants to talk to you! Bye Shikamaru!"

Blinking through the screen of uplifted dust and dirt and muttering a string of curses under his breath, Shikamaru turned back through the entrance doors and returned to the Fifth's office.

As he entered the bright office, the Nara herd heir decided all this exercise couldn't possibly be good for him. He'd just come back from a mission that he was given immediately after running away from brats all day, and then he'd been walking back and forth through the village doing odd errands before walking to the office he was in now, and walking out again, and now he was walking back in.

"Yes, Lady Tsunade?"

"Listen up, I'm not in the mood for chit-chat and this should be a simple mission for you. You'll be taking Team 10 up to the Ground Country and infiltrating the borders in order to acquire information from stationed troops about a few missing ninjas from the Leaf. Got it? Mission details are in this scroll." The blonde woman tossed a small scroll to him before waving her hand for him to go and returning to her stack of paperwork.

He nodded lazily and exited the building, looking down at the small green scroll. As he exited onto the streets, he twirled the scroll in his hand a few times before looking down at it again.

"Team 10… huh?" He hadn't done a mission with his genin team for a long, long time.

He fingered the scroll's security latch for a few moments before stepping into a side alley and letting it go.

The mission was easy… at first.

Complications had arisen and he was currently holding a dozen Rock ninja prisoner in his Shadow jutsu as he shifted the weight of Ino's limp body from arm to arm. He snorted slightly when the annoyed ninjas followed his actions.

They had been ambushed several miles away from the border and ended up engaging in battle; something they had been told to avoid.

Chouji had gone off towards the East during the fight, and Ino had used her Mind-Body-Switch technique as soon as their team mate had cleared the way for Shikamaru and allowed Ino to take over one ninja's mind and convince the team mates that he was going to go in search of help, although Ino was really going ahead with the mission; just as they'd planned she'd do if something went wrong with the mission.

However, there was one quickly growing problem, Shikamaru realized. All the extra exercise he was complaining about perhaps really had been bad for him. He certainly wasn't used to doing extra exercise aside from his training sessions and occasional missions, but lately he'd been doing a lot of exercise – non-stop. He was completely exhausted, and it was becoming increasingly evident in the way eh couldn't hold Ino's weight—which wasn't much—in one arm for more than a twenty seconds.

Wait, make that fifteen seconds. Now it had gone down the fifteen seconds.

"Shit, Chouji where the hell are you?"

He heard arrogant laughter from on of the ninjas he was currently holding captive; he seemed to be the leader. "Getting tired, little one?" The ninja waved an arm freely at Shikamaru, indicating that his jutsu was breaking.

"Shit." Now how the hell was he going to get of this? Sighing, Shikamaru reached up to rub his eyes. He stopped short when he almost poked himself in the eye with strands of blonde hair. He had almost forgotten that Ino's body was still in his care.

He darted his eyes up at the enemy ninja, who seemed to be formulating a plan together as he stood there in slight distress. While he had begun to form his own plans, he had nearly left out a crucial factor in the successive of these plans; the added weight and lessened flexibility he possessed with Ino's body.

"Aaah, how annoying." He decided to engage his enemies in conversation instead; they seemed more full of themselves than full of intelligence. Their behaviour reminded him of a certain orange blur when he was still a genin, since then his intelligence has risen and his blatant self-confidence had become a little more modest—except for that first week after he and his shy girlfriend began dating.

Shikamaru felt a tug at his jutsu, and realized he had let his mind wander for far too long. He pulled his team mate's body closer to him, feeling a twinge of fear that was more for the limp body than himself.

His heartstrings tugged slightly at the thought of Ino's body being separated form him and therefore harmed, and the idea that Chouji was taking so long because he had been injured or even killed.

Shaking his head from those disturbing thoughts, Shikamaru smiled confidently; Chouji could take care of himself now, there was nothing to worry about.

However, he wasn't so sure about his confidence in himself at the moment. What if he couldn't get away with Ino's body? Would he leave her there?

His heart pained him at the thought; he couldn't possibly leave a team mate behind like that. It was much too troublesome.

Clutching the body closer to his chest, Shikamaru began running through a list of getaway plans before stopping suddenly, realizing something he hadn't noticed in the past few minutes.

Ino had gained weight.

Just like he'd told her to the last time he saw her.

She'd gained weight.

That was a miracle.

A kunai whizzed by the Leaf ninja's ear and he snapped out of his reverie. He was completely losing focus.

"Shit."

He pulled Ino closer to him again. Shifting his hands in order to keep a better hold on her, Shikamaru decided on a tried and true – although fairly simple – plan of action. He'd make a run for it. But he would not let her go into their enemies' grasp, no way in the fiery depths of Akatsuki's Hidden Lair of Doom. Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration…

Regaining focus—if only for a moment, and counting down from five—Shikamaru began to pump chakra in his legs in preparation to flee the scene. When he got down to "two" the body in his arms suddenly sprang to life and the twelve ninjas in front of him collapsed with a loss of theirs; poison-tipped senbon embedded in their chests.

"Ino." He sounded more surprised than he'd meant to.

The blonde turned to him, smiling. "Where's Chouji? He shrugged, and she smiled wider. "He'll be fine."

Casting a glance at the mess of bodies in front of him, Shikamaru silently reprimanded himself. He had been unprepared for the mission and didn't really do much to help. He felt unusually disappointed in himself.

"I wasn't much help this time around." He muttered the sentence more to himself than the woman standing in front of him.

"Don't be stupid Shikamaru. You did your part, even though you decided to be a loser about it and get tired from standing for a few minutes."

He snorted before flopping down under the shade of a tree, preparing for a long wait for his other team mate. "You've gained weight." Shikamaru concluded that he deserved the slap he got; it was bad timing for the appreciative comment, anyways. It also proved that his sense of rationality seemed to have dropped slightly with his fatigue. "I was just pointing it out, you look much better with a little more weight on your bones."

Shikamaru ignored the half-angry blue gaze directed to him and began counting the glimpses of clouds he caught as he looked up at the sky through the canopy of trees around and above him.

In defeat, Ino settled down next to him and hugged her knees to her chest before mumbling, "Thanks." A slight smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

He didn't bother to spare her a glance as he proper his head up on his folded hands. "For what?" It probably wasn't the weight comment and he wasn't getting his hopes up for a change of heart about her ideal physical appearance.

"For not letting me go."

Looking up at her quickly, he caught the slight undertone in her voice and the slight pulling of his heart, but decided to ignore them both and chalked it up to the tiredness of his mind and body. Instead of responding, he gingerly rubbed the red mark appearing on his right cheek.

As an afterthought, he decided to let go of that plan he had made a few days ago to talk to the plain girl down the lane. He assured himself that that decision was made with great care and rational thought, or what little he had left of it, but had nothing to do with the pulling on his heart. As a genius, this thought made sense to him.

Spotting the pale hand lying in the grass next to his own, Shikamaru let go of the piece of grass he had been absently playing with, and circled his hand around it. From the resulting relaxation and calm that overcame him, Shikamaru found that he preferred the feeling of keeping hold of something important like this surprisingly smooth hand, than letting go of something insignificant like a sharp weapon, a red marking pen, or a surprised breath.

Much, much, much more preferable.

A/N: Reviews and comments are always appreciated. Don't be afraid to provide constructive criticism and to point out areas of improvement.