Ino frowned as she looked over her chart for her new patient. No doubt about it, the man was a genius, but he was so lethargic that he couldn't function properly in society, which explained why he was brought here. At least he wasn't a danger to society; just his lack of care would be a danger to himself. Unfortunately, Ino had little tolerance for "lazy" people. She hoped she would be able to control herself around her patient. From was his chart said, he had grown up with a loud and strong willed mother, making him abhor the presence of loud women, and Ino definitely could get loud.

Sighing, Ino shook her head. No, she was one of the best, not matter how frustrated a patient could make her she had to maintain control. Opening the door to his room, Ino noted the shades to the windows were pulled down and the lights were turned off. Checking her watch, Ino saw it was 1 p.m. Flicking the light switch on, Ino quickly saw a lump on the bed. A frown worked its way onto Ino's face. He was sleeping? At this hour? Taking a deep breath and counting to ten, Ino walked over to the lump. A mess of dark brown hair was peeking out of the covers and a thin arm was draped across his chest.

'Perfect.' Ino thought. She could check his vitals at least. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Ino took his wrist and checked his pulse. "Slow, but steady," she muttered to herself as she made notes on his chart. Looking are his arm, she couldn't help but wonder why he was so thin. "Probably malnutrition…" she again said to herself.

"No. It's just if you use your brain a lot, you use a lot of energy." A tired voice said.

Startled, Ino quickly stood and looked at her patient's face. Chocolate brown eyes peered through the scruffy hair and stared directly at the woman. "Judging from your outfit, I'm assuming you're a doctor." He said.

"Yes." Ino said, staring at his face. Or she would have been looking at his face if his shoulder length hair wasn't covering most of his face. Trying not to get annoyed she continued, "I'm Dr. Ino Yamanaka. I'll be looking after you for now. Please call me Ino."

Her patient merely grunted and yawned.

Twitching slightly from annoyance Ino said, "I just need to get your vitals and some information on any needs you might have while here."

Her patient said nothing. Clenching her teeth, Ino looked at her chart, "Fine, your name?"

"Don't you have it on my chart? Why ask me for it too?" He lazily said.

Ino tightly gripped her chart. Thue, she already knew his name, but she was trying to get him to be more familiar with her to make treatment easier. Would it kill him to tell her his name?

Watching his doctor carefully behind his strands of hair, he calculated many outcomes to this meeting. Judging from the way she talked and held herself she was very confident and outgoing. She understood her job, and her techniques of gaining patient trust weren't bad, but they were too direct. Noting her slight twitch and her current grasp on her chart, he frowned. She was awfully similar to a person he did not particularly like being around. Sighing, he decided the sooner he got her out of his room, the sooner he could sleep, but he had to make sure she was content with the meeting or else he was positive he would get a headache.

"Shikamaru Nara. I'm in relatively good health, just always fatigued." He said as she looked a bit happier as she made notes on her chart. Certain that she would leave now he started to get comfortable for another nap. He was tired now that he had thought about this meeting so much. Ino glanced up while she was writing, and the hair in his face was still bothering her. She couldn't read his facial expressions well so she couldn't tell how his mood was. Placing her pen down she walked over to Shikamaru.

Opening his eyes he looked at her a bit confused. He wasn't expecting this. Had he read her wrong? Impossible. He contemplated hundreds of possible results, and he chose the one with the highest probability of being the correct outcome. Waiting to see what she would do, Shikamaru made careful mental notes of her actions for future encounters with his doctor.

"You're hair is a mess." Ino said as she reached into her pocket.

It surprised him. However, looking her over again, Shikamaru saw that her entire outfit and appearance was carefully planned out. 'So she's also vain.' He thought but was shocked when he felt her touch his hair.

With a pull or two and a twist, Ino had successfully put Shikamaru's hair into a ponytail. His hair was awful, full of split ends and all uneven in length so his ponytail kind of stood up and looked all spiky, but at least his hair was out of his face.

"There." She said with a smile, "Now I can see you face."

Shikamaru sighed. Figures, she was a doctor, she needed to read his face to gauge her own actions. Though that meant she wasn't as good as he was in she needed his face to be clearly seen. However, it was kind of nice to see everything now. He had been too tired to do anything with his hair, so he left it as it grew. Waiting for her to leave, Shikamaru carefully watched Ino as she gathered her chart and pen. Happy with herself for putting his hair up, Ino quickly turned to leave, however her long platinum blond ponytail also was whipped around, hitting a ceramic lamp near the bed, knocking it to the floor with a crash.

Embarrassed, Ino told Shikamaru to be careful and not get cut while she went to get a dust pan to clean up the mess. Shikamaru stared at the broken lamp. It was compulsory for him to put puzzles together. Any hard puzzle. Like a lamp that had been shattered to hundreds of tiny pieces. Slowly crawling from his bed, Shikamaru was careful not to walk on the sharp ceramic. Gathering up the pieces, he sat on the floor and started to sort through them. The big ones would be the easiest to work with right now, especially since he didn't have any glue.

That was how Ino found her patient when she returned to the room. She was stunned. He was supposed to be unmotivated, yet he was sitting on the floor trying to piece the lamp together. Hearing her enter, Shikamaru looked up and said, "I need glue." With that he turned back to his new puzzle. Leaving the room to get him glue, Ino made more notes on her chart. Apparently she had just found a way to motivate Shikamaru for a bit.

Walking to his office, Sasuke was trying to figure out how he could get Hinata to open up. Her fear of blood had caused her to move a little, but he didn't like the idea of scare tactics for her, at least not to start with. Checking his palm pilot he sighed. He was meeting with Neji tomorrow for his first "session." Hopefully he could get some useful information. Glancing at his watch it was 4 p.m. 'I guess I should head home for today.' He had not other patients and Hinata was all set for today. Appraching his office door to get his coat, Sasuke was almost bowled over by Ino, who was running with her arms full of glue and tape. "What the?" He said annoyed as Ino paused to get a better grip on her glue supply.

"Ah, sorry Dr. Uchiha. Its just the new patient has something that makes him happy right now so I want to keep him occupied for now. He really likes puzzles so putting them together keeps him active and moving." Ino said. She was so happy Shikamaru liked to fix stuff. Ino had also broken a vase and a plate to make sure Shikamaru would be occupied till the evening since he had finished the lamp within two hours.

Sasuke watched Ino run off. "An activity to make them happy, huh?" He muttered. He wondered if he could find such an activity for Hinata.

- - - - -

A.N.

Well tomorrow is the last day of my easy week at work, meaning stories will go back to my usual updating. My usual readers know this means once a week or so...

And no, nothing romantic between Shika and Ino will be going on here.

and sorry about the lack of Sasuke and Hinata in this chapter...but needed to give some focus to Shikamaru since he will be helping out Hinata alittle.