Chapter Seven

Hours had passed since the kisses. Shikamaru had fallen asleep, having said only five select words as he and Ino ate. Ino was now sitting with her knees to her chest, watching Shikamaru's chest rise and fall.

Before now, Ino's feelings toward Shikamaru were biased; he was lazy, rude, and sarcastic. Lately he loved to pick fights with her, sometimes going out of his way, and that confused Ino. She thought he had bad habits. That his face always looked bored, and that he was often so quite it bugged her; that lately he was wreckless. But Ino loved Shikamaru as a best friend.

However, at the moment, Ino's opinion was slightly altered.

Sighing, she shivered and tucked her knees tighter against her chest. The rabbit-fur comforter was warm, true enough, and yes, she was dressed in warm clothing, but without that fire, Ino felt the chill in her bones. Her eyes saw only darkness. Barely visible was the broken mirror sitting beside the fire spot. Its appearance creeped her out for some odd reason, and she shivered more. The thought of those dead bodies in the next room made Ino think of horror stories. Silly, yes, but stuck in a dark, closed in train the thought of the rising dead seemed all the more real.

Biting her lip as she furrowed her brow. She wondered what Shikamaru was thinking. Something mind boggling happened earlier, and the two of them needed discuss it soon. The act scared her. Maybe it scared Shikamaru as well, and perhaps that was why he wanted to think it through before talking. That's how it seemed to Ino.

Woman knows best, she told herself and began to lie back down.

The rough table cloth had long since stopped annoying Ino. Not having a pillow wouldn't leave her be, though, and Ino found that, tired as she was, she couldn't fall asleep because of discomfort.

"My God," she groused to herself, "now I get keyed up. This sucks."

Shikamaru made a mixture of a whisper and moan, causing Ino to glance over at him after lying on her back. He rolled over to face her. Ino thought Shikamaru looked cute. She had never denied thinking Shikamaru was attractive. She wondered if she felt this attraction because she feared dying a virgin, but knew that was ridiculous. It had nothing to do with what she was experiencing, though she wished desperately that she had something to blame this feeling on.

"Shikamaru, you pain in the ass, what have you done now?" she whispered, tucking her arm under her head.

Sleep took her. The two of them lay nose to nose, unknowing that a storm took place outside.

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Naruto cursed as the wind knocked him into the rocks.

The search party trudged through the sudden wind storm for nearly five hours, and now began climbing the mountains. Day was slipping. Seeing as it was winter, the days were shortened. At this rate nightfall would approach shortly; the temperature would drop drastically.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled. "How far from here is Yuki?" The wind muffled his voice.

Somehow, Kakashi heard him.

"At least another day and a half," Kakashi called back. "Let's hurry down to that cave up ahead. We should take a break from this fight with the wind."

Reluctantly, Naruto agreed.

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Ino awoke freezing. Her body jerked violently. Her pale blue eyes fluttered open as pants of shock left her. The first thing she did was to sit up and look down at Shikamaru. He was also trembling and fighting to stay asleep. She figured his body held onto what was left of the heat better than hers, since only his teeth were chattering.

Shikamaru's head rolled back and forth in what seemed to be irritation. His frown hopped with every chatter.

Rubbing at her arms, Ino whimpered and looked over to the fire spot. Why hadn't Shikamaru lit it?

Breaking out into harsh coughs, Ino reached down and shook Shikamaru's shoulder.

"Shikamaru!" she snapped, angry. "Wake up!"

He did so grudgingly, managing to sit up and scowl at her. But the scowl faded as the cold hit him all at once.

"Damn!" His eyes went wide. "What the hell is this? It wasn't this cold outside." He seemed to be staring right through Ino.

"I-I know!" Her breaths came out in jumps. "Do something about it!"

Rubbing his forearms, Shikamaru stood up shakily and stepped over Ino, kneeling beside the fire. His hands shook as he attempted to rub two stick together—he kept dropping the sticks only to curse— and then managed to light the fire.

"This is such a pain in my ass," he scowled.

He didn't bother to stand, and simply crawled over Ino. He made it half way before Ino suddenly pulled him against her shivering form, saying rather loudly into his ear that she couldn't take this anymore, for him just to kill them and put them out of this misery.

"Don't be an idiot, Ino," he said, more shocked than sarcastic. He tried to loosen her grip on his sleeves and lift himself from her body, but he couldn't seem to manage. "Everything was okay up until now. We must have slept too long. That's all. The fire will get things warmed up in a few minutes. Here," he propped up on one hand and used to other to pry one of her pale hands loose, "let me go so we can get comfortable; I don't want to squash you."

Ino knew what that meant and welcomed it. She let Shikamaru go and watched restlessly as he curled up, waiting for her to get against him. She did, and before long Shikamaru pulled Ino against him tightly.

"Stop that!" she snapped. "You're stealing all the heat!"

"Don't be ridiculous. That's not even possible."

He burrowed his face into her neck. His teeth began to chatter more.

At the feel of his hot breath, Ino tightened her rickety grip around Shikamaru's back. Her nails dug roughly into his black shirt.

"I can't stand this! I've never been this cold."

Shikamaru growled, making the hairs on Ino's neck stand up.

"You've said that already," he said, his chin resting on her collar bone. "You think I like being this cold? Just calm down until the fire kicks in. Be thankful you're not unconscious this time."

Ino looked down at his chest, a thoughtful look on her face.

"I never have said thank you, have I?"

"What?"

"For saving me." Ino shivered, her voice quivering. "So thank you, Shikamaru."

"Tch." Shikamaru dropped his hand to her elbow, the other under her other shoulder. "Don't thank me just yet. We're still not out of here."

"No. We may not be out of here, but we're alive, and that's what matters. Just accept the thanks already!"

She felt Shikamaru smile against her neck, starting to pull back from the embrace. She didn't really want him to move, remembering the shared kissed.

"Wha—"

"You know, we probably shouldn't lay so close, Ino," Shikamaru interrupted her. His brow furrowed and he scooted away. "It wouldn't be a good idea."

Ino sighed and pulled the covers tightly around her, using her arms as a pillow and curling her legs up. She looked down to the floor and bit her lip.

"I think it would be better if we talked about us now, Shika."

"Don't, Ino. You know as well as I do that no good can come of this as long as we're stuck in here. So, let's just get warm for now. It's my bet that Choji told Naruto, and we both know Naruto will sing to Tsunade. Let's just hope he talked her into sending a search party."

"And if he didn't?" Ino asked.

"Well, worse case scenario," Shikamaru began, as if reading Ino's thoughts, "Naruto shows up here on his own. Because we all know he's not too great at taking orders."

Shikamaru shifted a bit and let out a heavy breath. He continued: "But I don't really think that would actually be all that bad."

Her head jerked. She frowned. Her frown slowly softened as she began to think that perhaps Naruto showing up by himself wouldn't be worse case scenario. After all, Naruto could easily dig her and Shikamaru out easily with his shadow clones. Hopefully he'd have enough sense to go to Yuki, inform reinforcements, and heat his own self up first, though, lest Naruto become stuck in here, freezing along side Shikamaru and herself. That was an unappealing thought.

"…head?"

Whether it was from their earlier experiences or just her own suspicious mind, Ino's jaw dropped at the ending to the question she hadn't actually heard.

"What was that?" she asked, shocked and somewhat pissed.

Arching a brow and propping up on his elbow, Shikamaru sighed.

"I asked if you wanted something to put under your head. You look uncomfortable."

"Oh."

Ino blushed. She was ashamed at herself for thinking Shikamaru to be such a pervert.

"Uh, yeah, that'd be a lot better than this." She cleared her throat and gained composure. "You should have thought about that earlier. Has your brain frozen or something?"

He frowned at her usual sarcasm.

"You better be nice," he said, sitting up and reaching out to feel for some clothing. "Besides, you could have just as easily thought of that. I didn't bring it up because I had already thought about it, actually. I'm just used to not having a pillow, seeing as I usually sleep without one anyway. I figured you were smart enough to reach and get something for yourself. You're not crippled are you, Ino?"

He heard Ino huff as he took hold of the leather jacket and began folding. Once he had the jacket folded, he handed it to Ino.

"That work for you?"

"Whatever," Ino replied, her nose in the air.

Shikamaru chuckled.

"Oi, you're moody, Ino."

She growled and whacked him with the jacket. But the pleasure of having smacked him one didn't last when Ino realized she'd have to re-fold the jacket, thus prolonging her sitting up. All she wanted to lie back and curl into a tight ball. Shaking her head and mumbling an argument under her breath, Ino fixed the "pillow" and began curling up under the covers.

Shikamaru had quieted beside of her, but Ino knew he wasn't sleeping. She could feel his eyes on her. She thought of probing him about the deeply needed talk, but changed her mind. If she pushed him too much, Shikamaru might drop the subject for good.

Did Ino want that?

She wasn't sure.