AN: continued…

Back to Surreality

Chapter ten- stop us part two

FLASHBACK

Shikamaru lay on the grass beneath her, still in ANBU gear, his mask lazily half hanging off his face and his eyes closed.

As she stood closer, his hand flinched where her shadow took the heat from his body and she could see the edge of his mouth under the mask curl upwards.

"You're back"

"Apparently" he still didn't move, speaking in a slightly amused tone.

"You didn't come and find me" she scowled.

"But you came and found me, so it's alright in the end"

"Lazy ass" she sat down next to him on the grass and looked him over for injuries. She noticed a few scratches in places across his arms and torso. "You're hurt"

"Yeah, bastard threw me into a tree"

"Threw you? That's unusual. Why did you let an enemy that close?"

"I didn't. It was Kiba."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know really. He said I was rushing to get back and, I don't know… maybe he couldn't keep up with the pace"

She lay against him with a sigh. "You were rushing?"

"Hai"

"Why?"

"I wanted to get back sooner. I know you hate it when I have to leave"

"Aww… so cute. So you came back for me?"

"Hai. I wanted to ask you something" he sat up and pulled his mask off properly to look at her.

"What?" she faced him, taking one of his hands into her own.

"Marry me Ino."

She giggled and pushed him away gently "don't be stupid"

His face fell "what?!"

She leant and kissed him softly "we're already engaged, remember?"

END FLASHBACK

"But…" Inoichi gaped.

"But what daddy? Do you have some reason to believe that we don't mean it?" keep at step three…

"Um…"

"You haven't even seen us together for months" she continued.

They flinched at the term seen. Shikamaru gave her hand a quick squeeze as he took it into his own, letting her know that she was doing the right thing.

"Unless you have any reason to protest that you can back up, we are getting married next month." Shikamaru stated, then looked down at her "Is that too soon honey?"

Ino beamed back at him "Not at all baby. Should we really be leaving Chouji out of this though? I think he deserves to be one of the first."

"Of course. I'll go and call him dow-"

"All right!" Shikaku snapped, very uncharacteristically. "We get the point! You obviously know that we saw you last week so you can stop this now."

"What about last week dad?" Shikamaru simply raised an eyebrow at him.

"Stop what?" Ino stood and went to the door "Chouji! You can come back down now!"

"Ino!" Inoichi protested "Stop that!"

"Why Daddy? He needs to know"

"I need to know what" Chouji appeared at the door frame.

"Sit down Chouji." Choza told him calmly, trying to keep hold of the rapidly increasing chaos of the situation.

Chouji went to do as he's told and noticed that Shikamaru is in his place. He sat down in the next chair as Ino returned to her seat, a smug look on her face.

"What's going on?" the younger boy asked innocently.

"Ino and I have an announcement to make" Shikamaru told him calmly

"No you don't!" Shikaku continued

"And why not?" he protested

"Look, we don't want to do this in front of your friend. Please just be reasonable and we can make our apologies later."

"Apologies for what? Is there something you've done?" Ino asked politely

"Don't give us that young lady? You know fine well… you know that we saw you last week." Inoichi snapped

"Of course you did, at the family meal."

"No, I mean… you two together, at the hospital."

"When we were visiting Chouji?"

"No Ino! Don't play dumb with me! When you were… and he was… Choza, help me out here."

"When you were trying to seduce Shikamaru."

Chouji gasped, looking over to his two friends, barely containing a giggle.

"Now you can't possibly mean that secret mission we were on? That was a locked room. The only people who knew what happened were us, Sakura, Kakashi and Tsunade. No, the only way you could know that would be if you were told."

"No it isn't." he bowed his head.

"You were filmed and we watched without your permission." Choza told them

"We invaded your privacy and we're sorry" Shikaku glanced sideways.

"You see… that wasn't so hard, was it?" Ino smiled in a very patronizing way

"We really are very sorry. Can you forgive us?" Choza pleaded.

"Only on the grounds that it was Tsunade who filmed us" Shikamaru smirked

"And that you are going to give all of the money you made from the bets, to us. Unless you bet on Sakura and Kakashi aswell, in which case that money belongs to them and I would be physically appalled at the behavior towards my best friend"

"Will someone please explain this to me?" Chouji scratched his head "Ino tried to seduce Shikamaru on a mission…"

"No. For the mission. That was what my mission was."

"Right… and our parents all watched…"

"And betted on the outcome"

"And Sakura and Kakashi…"

"Were put into the same situation. Sakura had to…"

He laughed slightly "Well that makes things a lot clearer"

"What?! Why?"

"Well… Ok, you have to promise not to tell anyone, especially Sakura that I told you this…"

"We promise" they all said at once

"When Sakura was treating me last week, Kakashi turned up and they… well they were arguing about promises and Sakura just kept saying "just a mission" and then…" he seemed uncomfortable with mentioning it.

"What?!" Ino stressed.

"Then they had a pretty steamy make-out session right there in front of us. There were tongues, and hands in places and…" Jaws dropped "Naruto passed out in shock, and then as soon as Sakura turned to help Kiba lift him, Kakashi disappeared leaving behind a little black jewelry box. She wouldn't open it there but she was smiling something stupid."

"Ha!" Choza suddenly exclaimed "That's another twenty for me"

"For Sakura and Kakashi you mean" Ino glared at him.

"Hai… of course… that's what I meant."

"You didn't win anyway." Shikaku pointed out "You bet that they would get together. I'm judging by the look on Ino's face that Sakura hasn't told her anything, so obviously nothing more has happened"

"She doesn't tell me everything you know..." Ino reasoned, looking pointedly at Shikamaru.

"Right… sorry."

"So… now that this is cleared up, are you two going to drop this ridiculous act?" Inoichi asked tentatively.

"What act?" Shikamaru cocked his head to one side.

"You know what I meant"

"No we really don't"

"You two aren't really getting married."

"I'll say it again…" he smirks and put his arms around her shoulders again "I'd like to see you stop us"

"But…"

"It wasn't an act Daddy. We really are engaged." Ino took the ring he had given her from her pocket and put it onto her finger to show them "we thought that this would be the funniest way to show you, seen as you got more than enough amusement out of us last week"

Chouji was just grinning.

"You don't seem surprised Chouji." Choza looked confused.

"Oh, no. they told me last night. All of it actually." He answered with mirth in his voice.

"You were in on this?"

"Of course he is," Ino smiled "he's our best man. We would never leave him out of the fun."

"Great acting Choj" Shikamaru patted him on the shoulder with his spare hand.

AN: pure and utter ridiculous mush.

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XX Belizma-chan XX