Shikamaru was such a sexist little brat, but I've treated it as him being in a 'ewww, girls!' stage and that he had purposely/naturally misunderstood his parents' teachings on how to treat girls.
Please R and R!
He didn't think she would finish his job.
Shikamaru stared at the scene before him. A small acre of spontaneous clearing had opened up in the forest within the last minute. This wasn't what he had envisioned happening at all.
("Hey you," she had asked, "when did you turn into such a dim wit?")
He knew that famous kunoichi existed, people of legend like Tsunade the slug. But his personal experience of girls made him believe that this was the exception rather than the norm.
("Are you still going on about that man and woman crap?" She had interrupted him. "I know that's all a bluff.")
For example he knew that his mother was a Chuunin when she met his father, but that was a long time ago. He had imagined her screaming the enemy into surrender like how she screamed at him into doing homework.
("Don't underestimate my power." she had said, before biting her scarred thumb and leaving a trail of crimson on her fan.)
He could never understand why his father chose to be under his mother's thumb when Shikamaru knew how strong he was. He had admittedly looked down on his father a little for that.
("Wind release! Great sickle weasel!")
As for his female classmates, he had only really hung out with Ino during training. Useful as she was with her body swap jutsu, he was always the one who had to pick up her body and keep it out of danger.
(Shikamaru did all he could to not be blown away from the powerful forces that had emitted from her fan. He couldn't see nor hear for the cutting winds that tore up every tree in its path...)
And thus Shikamaru had decided that while girls can be useful, they are annoying and generally have to be protected. The scariest thing about them were their ability to get angry and nag with no end in sight.
"How's that?" As the sounds of the destruction died completely, he finally heard the girl speak. "It's over." her voice was cheerful and, he noted, had a slight hint of smugness.
This kunoichi's ability to level a forest without breaking a sweat was probably a tad more frightening than her ability to nag. He looked up at the nonchalant figure in front of him.
What a pushy person,
his brain felt a little dazed.
She's scarier than my mother.
The sand kunoichi turned to face him, arm on her fan. "No problem?" She said and gave him a grin, all scrunched up nose and showing teeth. It was an innocent expression that surprisingly suited her well.
Shikamaru found his stomach doing a tiny little flip (from fear, he assumed) and before he could help himself the corners of his mouth were curling up in response. He gave a small nod that spoke volumes.
Oh well...I guess I better thank her this time around.
And so in the midst of the devastation two youths stood smiling in acknowledgement at each other, for a moment almost as if without a care in the world.