Chapter 2: Squirrel!

Tenten's POV:

"I wonder where those two love birds are going?" I asked myself.

"Well, I better go home. Bye, Ino. Bye, Tenten." Shikamaru said and walked out the door.

"Why didn't you ask him out, Ino?" I asked putting my hands on my hips.

"Huh? Oh, why should I? I bet he doesn't even like me that way anyhow." Ino said sighing.

"You'll never know unless you say something." I said trying to build up her confidence.

"Like Sakura said, I'll tell him when the time is right, and it wasn't the right time." Ino sighed "I'm going upstairs. Oh, and Neji called. He said to meet him at the big oak tree in the park. He said something about telling you something. I don't remember. Oh, well."

As she walked up the stairs I stared after her. She looked so sad. I shrugged then grabbed my coat and ran out the door and I headed to the park. Seven minutes later I arrived at the big oak tree, and as I expected, there was Neji leaning against the tree smiling at me. I walked up to him with my arms crossed grinning.

"So, what do you want? Ino said you wanted to tell me something about something but she couldn't remember what." I said leaning against the tree, too.

"It's just like Ino not to remember." Neji said chuckling. "Actually I wanted to tell you I..."

"You what?" I asked now looking at him.

"I...I mean did Deidara tell you about the plan about getting Shikamaru and Ino together?" Neji said sighing.

"No, but I totally want to be part of this. So how do we----oh, my gosh! It's a squirrel!" I said pointing at it as it ran up a tree.

Neji's POV:

"I'm in love with this girl? That's not the point right now." I thought to myself shaking my head. "Why couldn't I tell her I love her? I'm not usually like this. Why can't I talk to her the way I talk to everyone else?"

"Neji, are you ok?" Tenten asked putting her hand on my arm.

"Huh? Oh, uh yeah. I'm fine. I was just thinking.....about...uh....that squirrel you saw." I said trying to cover up the fact that I was thinking about her. I still couldn't understand why it was so hard to talk to her.

"Ok then. Well, that little squirrel was cute." she said dreamily.

"Totally cute." I said.

I must have been staring at her because the next thing she said was "Neji, why are you looking at me that way?"

"What? Oh, uh…no reason." I said then quickly changed the subject. "So, Deidara and Sakura seem inseparable."

"Yeah." she sighed then she looked up at the sky. "I wonder what true love feels like? I wish I could find the right guy. But everyone here is a jerk. Except for you, Deidara, and Shikamaru."

"Wait. So you're saying you'd date one of us?" I said grinning.

"Uh...I…uh.....no." she said blushing a little. "Besides Deidara and Sakura are going out and Shikamaru is too young for me."

"Hey, what about me?" I said nudging her a little.

"What about you?" she said grinning.

"Hey! I'm a very fun-loving man thank you very much." I said trying to sound proud.

"You're a man? You could've fooled me." she said laughing. "I should run, shouldn't I?"

I nodded and ran after her. After seven minutes of running we ended up at her house. She ran inside and hid under a blanket on the couch. I pretended not to notice. I walked over to the couch and picked up a pillow. Then pulled the blanket off of her and hit her with the pillow. She grabbed a pillow and started to hit me. We hit each other until we both fell on the floor laughing. Just then Deidara and Sakura walked in.

"Um, sorry if we're interrupting anything, un." Deidara said laughing.

"Huh? No, we're just uh having a pillow fight." Tenten said helping me up.

"Suuuuuure." Deidara said sarcastically.

Sakura's POV:

"Hey, Tenten. Where's Ino?" I asked.

"She's upstairs in her room. She seems really sad." Tenten said shrugging then plopped on the couch.

"What? You didn't go and try to cheer her up?" I said getting angry.

"No because she doesn't like talking to me about her boy troubles." Tenten said picking up a magazine.

"Because you're always teasing her about stuff like that. Ugh! I can't believe you! You don't even care about your own sister!" I yelled now furious then I ran upstairs to see Ino.

"I do care about her for your information!" I heard Tenten call after me.

I walked into Ino's room to find her throwing a basketball in the air. She did seem sad. I walked over and sat on the edge of her bed. As soon as I sat down she stopped throwing the basketball in the air and it landed on her face.

"Owww." she moaned. "What do want?"

"I wanted to see if you were alright." I said.

"Oh, I'm fine I guess. I don't know. I'm just so confused. I want Shikamaru to like me you know. Do you think we would ever get together, sis?

"Of course I do. I have faith in you two. Besides you two make a great couple." I said smiling.

"Ino! Someone wants to see you, un!" Deidara hollered up the stairs.

We got up and walked downstairs. Shikamaru was standing in the doorway holding a bouquet of flowers. Ino walked over to Shikamaru.

"These are for you. I wanted to give them to you last night but I forgot. Here." he said holding the flowers out to her.

"Wow. They're beautiful. Thanks." Ino sat giving Shikamaru a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Shikamaru fainted after she kissed him.

5 minutes later.......

"Shikamaru? Shikamaru? Wake up." I said shaking him.

"Whoa. I just had the craziest dream. I dreamt that Ino kissed me and I fainted." Shikamaru said shaking his head.

"I did kiss you and you did faint." Ino giggled.

"You mean that wasn't a dream?" Shikamaru asked in disbelief.

"Nope." Deidara said. "You know, a real man wouldn't faint after a girl kisses him, un. I guess you're not a man, Shikamaru."

"Oh, really?" I said raising an eyebrow at him. Then I kissed him on the lips and---as you guessed it---- he fainted.

2 minutes later........

Deidara woke up. "I thought you said men don't faint when a girl kisses them." Shikamaru said smirking.

"That didn't count! I was totally caught off-guard." Deidara protested.

"Deidara, when will you ever learn?" Neji said shaking his head.

"Hey, guys! Does anyone want pizza? It's movie night." Tenten said holding up the phone.

"Oooo....I want pizza, and what movie are we watching, un?" Deidara said jumping up and down with his hand in the air.

"We're watching 'Just My Luck'." Tenten said dialing the number to Home Pizza.

20 minutes later.......

~Ding Dong~

"Yay! The pizza's here!" Ino clapped and ran to the door.

"Here you are m'am. That'll be $20." the pizza guy said holding out his hand.

"Um, here you go." she said handing the guy $20 and then shutting the door.

I popped in the disc and went back to the couch. I cuddled up with Deidara and rested my head on his chest. Neji and Tenten were just sitting beside each other, but you could tell that Neji wanted to wrap his arm around her. Ino rested her head on Shikamaru's shoulder, and Shikamaru was stroking her beautiful blonde hair.

Authors Note:

Heyyy! I hope you all enjoyed this!

Please send in reviews and ideas! That would be awesome! Please and thank you!