Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

000

13&14

"Oi. Shikamaru. Shikamaruuuuu. ShikaShikaShika—"

"Shut up, woman." Shikamaru groaned, batting away the finger that had been poking him for the last thirty seconds.

Ino pouted, "But your gorgeous teammate has just suffered the humiliation of getting a tie against an ugly, pink-haired banshee with an oversized forehead! Surely you should comfort you poor, innocent childhood friend who has the body of a Greek goddess?"

Shikamaru rolled over to face the wall, "No thanks. Your ego seems to be perfectly intact."

Ino fumed, steam spewing out of her nostrils as Chouji and Asuma wisely turned their heads the other way, "How could you be so inconsiderate? Here I am, bruised and bloody with my make up in ruins—" figures she'd put the most emphasis on that part "—while you're just lying there like the lazy ass you are and not even giving so much as a 'You're better than Sakura' as consolation—"

"You're better than Sakura."

"—AND THAT DOESN'T COUNT! First off, there was absolutely no sincerity in the way you said that— where's the sympathy, the emotion?— Second off, you didn't bother to say anything until I practically handed you a manual on How To Not Be An Insensitive Jerk! I swear, you'll never manage to get a girlfriend at this rate, I mean, who would want to date such a lazy, thoughtless, unremarkable—"

Shikamaru snorted at the irony of that statement. Who indeed?

Of course, Ino didn't notice the tiny gesture and continued to rant. The Nara sat up sluggishly; the whole lying down for a quick nap was kind of impossible with his teammate's voice blaring in his ears. He stood up and made his way over to Chouji, leaning on the railing and wordlessly taking a proffered chip. Ah yes, just imagine floating in a blank white space where nothing can touch you, a place rid of any troublesome, blond females and their obnoxiously high-pitched, preteen voices… ("—are you listening to me? ARE YOU LISTENING TO—?").

Having found his inner Zen, Shikamaru had little to do other than reflect on the day's events. Which he really would rather not do (he'd say that today's rating on the troublesome-o-meter was almost high enough to rival the day he was interrogated by Gai-sensei on his intentions towards the jonin's "youthful blossom"), but he didn't have much of a choice if he wanted keep his eardrums intact. He supposed the day's events were more like the week's events, but time was relative in a forest full of oversized fauna that wanted to kill you and eat you for dinner, not necessarily in that order. Oh, and the several dozen bloodthirsty teenagers running around too, can't forget those guys.

Shikamaru rubbed his temples; the more he looked back on it, the more amazed he was that his team had actually managed to survive, let alone qualify for the next round. There were people years older than him who had killed dozens of men already, only to fail the second exam while his team had passed for some unfathomable reason. The closest he'd come to killing anyone was when he'd shoved a certain trio of fanboy-stalkers off a twelve story building, but they were ninjas so they'd managed to survive just fine (bar a few broken bones). Either way, Shikamaru was really starting to doubt a particular bunch of jonins' judgment in letting a bunch of rookies take the chunin exam. The whole ordeal had left him exhausted, from dealing with Ino's complaints on the lack of showers to dealing with Chouji's complaints on the lack of food to dealing with his own internal complaints on the lack of Tenten—

Shikamaru choked on his own spit, startling the rest of his teammates as he started coughing for no particular reason. Where had that come from? Sure, he hadn't really seen her much in the last three days (three days, sixteen hours and forty two minutes, his brain unhelpfully supplied) and he supposed he might've missed her a little bit (read: a lot) but it wasn't like— he didn't really—

The shadow user slammed his forehead onto the railing, skull meeting metal with a dull clang. He inwardly cursed his teenage hormones, completely unaware of the bemused looks his teammates were sending him. It didn't make sense, he'd caught a couple glimpses of her already once the second task was over— hell, she was standing right there, less than fifty feet away from him! Sure, it wasn't the same as actually standing next to her (and talking to her and interacting with her and basking in her presen—) but it should've been enough to satisfy him because Shikamaru was not clingy— no, definitely not, there was no way the lazy Nara was remotely similar those fangirls who stuck to Sasuke like a plague— and it wasn't like this was the first time they'd been separated for more than a few days, they both went on missions so it was perfectly normal to not see each other for a couple weeks at a time (although those times she wasn't skirting around the edges, taunting and teasing and so close yet so far—).

Shikamaru groaned in sudden comprehension. All teams participating in the chunin exam had little to no missions the past several months so they could get time to train (except Team 7, they were just shoved into this mess right after nearly dying on some C turned A rank mission and what the hell was their jonin sensei thinking—). Which meant that Shikamaru got to spend uninterrupted time with his lovely, knife toting fiancée for a solid three months. Therefore, his present situation was very much like that of a drug addict going cold turkey.

To put it simply, Shikamaru was having withdrawal symptoms.

The young Nara was really starting to think that women should come with warning labels. CAUTION: Do not take more than five doses per day or you may experience one or more of the following: depression, stomachaches, migraines, blunt force trauma to the head, inexplicable urges to hurt something, bouts of hopeless lovesickness that last for an indefinite period of time—

"Shikamaru, look! The next match is being decided!"

The Nara heir was snapped out of his reverie by Ino's voice, and he noticed that the screen next to the enormous ram seal was a blur of names once more. He really hoped he didn't get matched up with the Suna redhead… or Neji… or the mummy/cyborg hybrid… or anyone for that matter, seriously, he didn't see the point in fighting just to show off.

The screen stilled.

SABAKU NO TEMARI vs. NARA TENTEN

Shikamaru was about to groan at having to fight against a girl before he realized that, no, Tenten was not his name, and how the hell did that machine manage to screw up it up so badly that it didn't even have the same number of letters— wasn't Tenten the name of his fiancée—?

It took Shikamaru a remarkably long time to figure out who the machine was referring to given his IQ. Upon reaching the conclusion that it wasn't a Shikamaru twisted into a Tenten but a Tenten with a Nara pasted to the front, the actual Shikamaru's eyebrows rose to a comical height. His head whipped to the side, eyes nervously searching out the weapons mistress. Sure they were engaged, but wasn't it a bit presumptuous of him to…

His train of thought sputtered to a halt when he was blinded by a miniature sun.

Well, not a literal sun but Tenten might as well have been one with all the radioactive waves of pure joy she was giving off. She was grinning so widely it seemed like her face was about to split in half and her teeth were glinting more than Lee's and Gai's put together. Shikamaru swore he heard marriage bells ringing somewhere in the distance and he half expected her to start throwing up rainbows and bunny rabbits.

The assembly of jonin looked thoroughly befuddled since they were pretty sure there was only one Nara genin who made it through, not to mention that the bun haired girl didn't look nearly lazy enough to be one. As for her teammates, they were gradually inching away from her (last time she was in one of these moods she'd thrown pointy objects at anything within a five meter radius), while Gai-sensei looked like he was about to cry ("MY YOUTHFUL BLOSSOM WAS A NARA IN DISGUISE AND SHE NEVER TOLD ME?"). Most people were saying it was probably some sort of glitch on the machine's part, god knew how old that thing was. Shikamaru figured it was because of that engagement contract they'd signed some while ago; the clan database probably just added the surname on default since engagement contracts within clans were hardly ever broken.

Tenten caught his eye and sent him a look full of so much I-couldn't-be-more-euphoric-if-I-was-stoned-sky-high vibes that the Nara couldn't help but smile back.

"Oi, Shikamaru, is she a relative of yours or something?" Ino poked him in the side.

"Hm? Something like that," he replied absently, not taking his eyes off the weapons mistress across the room. Ino tried to wave a hand in front of him to catch his attention but promptly froze when she saw the expression on his face. She turned around robotically and went to a corner where she crouched and started muttering to herself ("…must be possessed, no way in hell could the lazy ass himself manage to pull off such a lady killing smile, just remember you've already got Sasuke Ino, Sasuke Sasuke Sasuke Sasuke…")

"Um… Nara… Tenten? Please come down." The examiner coughed into his fist, the Suna girl already there and tapping her foot impatiently.

"Hai!" Tenten chirped, leaping down from the balcony and completely forgoing the stairs. She bounced on her heels as if she would explode if she stopped moving. The Suna girl raised and eyebrow and she just grinned back cheekily.

"Er… right. Same rules apply. You may be—" The two kunoichi had to catch themselves when the examiner suddenly went into another coughing fit. They stood there awkwardly for twenty seconds before he regained his composure. "You may begin."

The examiner barely had enough time to leap out of the way to avoid a sudden wave of kunai, shuriken, senbon, katana, sickles, rapiers, broadswords, kitchen knives, and practically anything under the sun with a remotely sharp— was that a cheese grater?

Temari, caught off guard by the fact that they were skipping the monologue and going straight to the fighting, whipped out her fan and blasted away the hurricane of weapons with a gust of wind. They went flying in all directions and were about to impale the spectators (Ino screamed but Shikamaru didn't so much as flinch) when they suddenly stopped in midair and swiveled around, manipulated by invisible wires. They floated through the air, forming a deadly hemisphere around the two combatants.

There was a crackle of electricity and suddenly blue lightning was dancing across the dome of weaponry, the metal conducting the charge from one object to the next until it was a blinding, singular mass of spastic energy ("WHO THE HELL TAUGHT HER ELEMENTAL MANIPULATION? SHE'S ALREADY DANGEROUS ENOUGH WITH A BUTTER KNIFE AND A CAN OF HAIRSPRAY!" A suspiciously Neji-like voice shrieked. Shikamaru whistled.)

Temari cursed and brandished her battle fan, bending her knees and bellowing, "Fuuton: Kamaitachi!"

This time the explosion of weapons couldn't be drawn back as Temari's technique ended up severing all the wires, resulting in a hail of razor sharp, electrically charged, very deadly weaponry.

Let's just say the aftermath wasn't pretty.

000

"…and who was the idiot who decided that wind beats lightning? That doesn't even make sense! I'd like to seem someone try and fan a lightning storm and see if they don't get electrocuted to…"

Shikamaru nodded whenever there was a sufficient pause in words, concentrating on peeling the apple in his hands while his hospitalized fiancée continued to rant. It had been an impressive match but in the end, the unfortunate elemental match up decided the victor. Tenten's wounds weren't that serious, but the hospital staff insisted that she stay for a few days anyway (personally, Shikamaru thought her ego was more bruised than anything else).

Which left the young Nara in his current predicament— the fact that he had made it to the final round while his girlfriend… hadn't.

He held up a slice of fruit and she happily chomped down on it.

"By the way," she spoke while chewing, "How did your match go?"

Shikamaru felt a bead of sweat form on his brow, "Um… okay, I guess."

She swallowed, "So you won?"

The Nara tried to decipher her expression but, as usual, found that he couldn't. "…yeah."

"Who're you up against?"

"…Sabaku no Temari."

A not-so-nice grin blossomed on her face and Shikamaru cringed, "Well, you'll just have to avenge me now won't you? Since your gorgeous fiancée has just suffered the humiliation of losing against a blond, arrogant, Suna-nin?"

Shikamaru felt an odd sense of déjà vu.

000

A/N: Erk. First fighting sequence "orz. Um... surprisingly this is actually a sort of continuation of the last oneshot… would that make it a twoshot? o.o