"Shikamaru! Im so so so sorry, here I am yelling at you and you must be so tired."

"I am not."

"God, you are such a bad liar! C'mon I'll help you."

Shikamaru sighed and rose up, Ino took his arm and guided him out of the training grounds. It was easier doing what she wanted, he had learned that over the years, so he just tagged along, beside he inddded was tired.

"My house is the closer, lest go."

Shikamaru wanted to argue over this but he was out of energy, he was drifting in and out of sleep while even walking, Ino tried her best to take him to a bed soon and carried some of his weight too. She could have swear that if she had dropped him there, there he would be able to sleep. Peacefully even.

After a few minutes they reached in record time her house, her father opened and Shikamaru knew that he had to said something to make this not look as bad as it already was, her father was a very special person, very over protective over his little princess, his brain tried to come back with something to say, but before even having time to make his brain function he found himself in Ino's room. How? He couldn't care less but something in the back of his mind nagged him that he would not hear the end of this tomorrow.

Soon he hit something soft, clean and it smelled like Ino. It was her bed. The second he touch it he sighed in content, its been ages he thought, since he had been this comfortable.

"Here, now sleep a bit, you shouldn't have to push yourself like that baka." She ordered him, back to her usual self.

"You should too."Shikamaru wanted to give reasons, he had plenty, like she hadn't sleep in 48 hours, that she had cried her heart out, but his brain wasn't working anymore, he moved to one side of her bed and closed his eyes. "Come."

Ino stood by the side a few seconds and Shikamaru growled.

"Asuma is going to kill me if he finds out that you are tired tomorrow because of me. Sleep."And with that being said he moved to a more comfortable position and fell asleep in a second. Ino sighed, and tucked him in with a blanket. After a while she was feeling sleepy too, she looked to her door, daddy was going to be mad, but then again they have slept together so many times in missions with Chouji and Asuma, that she couldn't care less at the moment.

She remembered what had happened before. The mission, how she had found out. Waking up to a crying Sakura, talking in sobs, trying to communicate to her that Sasuke had left, but that it will be okay, cause Naruto and the others had gone to retrieve him, to take him back to Konoha.

"¿The others?" She had asked a crying Sakura back then. She made a mental note to ask Shikamaru if he knew something about this the instant she was out of Sakura house.

"Yeah, Shikamaru is the team lider." The pink haired kunoichi said between sobs as she held to Ino with shaky hands.

Ino froze, she had wanted to cry over hearing this, but that made her stop in her tracks. Shikamaru? Gone?! But he had turned a chunning just recently!

Then she remembered going to Asuma sensei after he left a fast sleep Sakura at her house and screamed at him. What has he thinking? Nothing! Was the answer. Nothing, cause in her mind she would never, ever, let them go in a suicidal mission. They had Anbus for that for god's sake!

Then after throwing a tantrum she had gone to wait to the huge doors of Konoha, just to find out she couldn't stand still, she couldn't wait, she felt the urge to run after them, so she decided to go to their training ground, and there she waited till they came back. When not dozing of training, unable to do anything else besides wait, finally news of them coming back made it to her ears and she had sprinted to meet them, however she didn't even have a chance to see either of them as she was soon kicked out of the hospital, enraged beyond belief she had gone back to the training field to let her anger go knowing fully that storming into the hospital wasn't the greatest idea. Shikamaru went to search for her in behalf of Asuma-sensei after he had told him what had happened when Ino had been denied to enter and visit Chouji. Shikamaru, knowing Ino wasn't going to be able to rest till she heard the news went looking for her.

He ended up in a huge hug on her part, a crying teammate and he sighing for it was way too troublesome to explain it to her. Cause he was not even sorry for that Sasuke, he was the biggest idiot he had ever met and the waste for his friends in his searching didn't allow him to do what he did.

And there it was Ino crying over him, nonetheless!

Whatever, Ino wasn't even thinking about Sasuke, she was hell worried about her teammates, worried they wouldn't make it back. Just plain aware that if something happened to them she would had searched Sasuke herself just to kill him with her hands. After saying that out loud she had cried even more and Shikamaru, knowing it would be a drag to not consulate her, he did. After a while she realized that he had just come back from mission, he needed sleep. Fast.

So here they were, sharing the same bed, Ino was drifting to sleep hearing Shikamaru's faintest snores. She chuckled, whenever he was beaten he snored, however she didn't mind them at all. She was so glad he was alive, both of them and very out of herself she snuggled closer to him, still thinking, still trying to grasp the fact he was alive and breathing.

And for the very first time, she hated Sasuke and his existence, and everything he represented, and that never changed ever since that day.