A/N: Alright, here we are at chapter 10 (and finally I've reached double digits in this story!) Now, I was originally going to post this chapter tomorrow but I got bored waiting so here it is (aren't you all lucky?). So I also think this chapter is pretty uneventful but -shrugs- what must be written, must be written, so without further ado, disclaimer.
Ino: raindropdays does not own Naruto, the characters or the plot
A/N: true that! now on with the story
"Really?" exclaimed Naruto as Ino made her offer. "You'll help me get Haruno?" Ino smiled at Naruto.
"Listen, Uzumaki," she said slyly, "I'm Sakura's best friend so I know her pretty well." Naruto spun around to face her and nodded.
"Yeah, yeah," he agreed. Ino giggled. Her plan was totally working. "So what do I need to do?"
"Alright, here's the secret," said Ino lowering her voice. Naruto leaned in to hear what the secret was. "It's called...being nice." Naruto froze for one, two, three seconds before shooting up angrily.
"Be nice?!" he shouted. "That's your secret." Ino shrugged, her temper rising. He was obviously not appreciating her advice.
"Yes," she replied, "Don't be cocky. Be nice to her and she'll like you." Naruto pondered her words. Was there any chance that she was right?
"Nice?" he questioned again.
"YES!" Ino exclaimed angrily, "Be NICE!" Naruto scowled and shook her off, turning and waving as he went.
"I'll think it over," he called as he left the grounds. He stopped and added "maybe" and then continued walking. Ino crossed her arms and shook her head. As long as Naruto played Mr. Too-Cool-To-Be-Nice, he would never get Sakura. She had opened her eyes and was watching the people leaving, wondering if Sakura had already left when she saw Shikamaru pass by. "Oh, Shikamaru!" she called chasing after him. Shikamaru saw Ino bounding towards him out of the corner of his eye and closed his eyes at her appearance.
"Please tell me this is a dream," he thought to himself, hunching over and continuing walking. As soon as Ino saw this she became angry at him and ran faster.
"Shikamaru!" she called more aggressively.
"A bad dream..."
"Shikamaru!" Shikamaru heard the call one last time before he was tackled by the blonde girl. He sighed as she latched onto his back with her arms around his neck. "Why didn't you stop?" she snarled in his ear irritably.
"Uh, must not have heard you," Shikamaru shrugged which earned him a smack over the back of the head from Ino. He sighed as he rubbed the back of his head and the two left the grounds.
"I can't believe you!" Ino continued on. Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Only a few more minutes and then her short attention span would take over and she would pick a new topic. "...you tell me you didn't hear me but I must have only been a few feet away..." Shikamaru sighed again. Any minute now there would be a new subject. "...and then you're not even happy when I jump on you!!"
"Honestly Ino, who would be happy if you jumped on them?" came a sudden voice from behind the 'couple'. Ino spun around and Shikamaru silently thanked god for the interruption. He then followed Ino's action to see Kiba and Hinata not to far away from them. "Yo, Shikamaru, having a problem?" asked Kiba winking at his friend. Shikamaru smiled nervously, careful not to catch Ino's eye. Kiba laughed at the look on his face and turned to Ino. "Now, what's wrong with you Ino?"
"Nothing..." she grumbled. There. She had finally let it go, and it had only taken a few minutes. Shikamaru knew her all too well; actually, maybe a little too well.
"Anyway," Kiba continued, "So Ino," he stepped closer to her and she inched back a little bit, "I saw you talking to Uzumaki; that desperate for a boyfriend?" At this comment, Ino punched Kiba hard.
"Kiba!" Hinata exclaimed as he stepped backwards.
"You...are...dead..." said Ino, malice dripping on each word. Shikamaru quickly stepped between the two.
"You know, you shouldn't have said that," he whispered to his friend who was now feeling his mouth for signs of blood. Kiba nodded to Shikamru.
"But it was kind of true..." replied Kiba after a moment. Ino heard the statement Kiba had made and immediately flared up again. She tried to hit him again but Shikamaru held her back.
"I'd leave now if I were you," he advised Kiba and Hinata as he held a struggling Ino back who was now shouting death threats at Kiba. Kiba snickered a little bit before taking off.
"Come on Hinata!" he called as he turned his back to Ino and Shikamaru. Hinata nodded, and after bowing quickly to Shikamaru and Ino, she left, following Kiba. Shikamaru waited a full thirty seconds before he let Ino go...and she struggled the whole time which made those thirty seconds very troublesome.
"You okay now?" he asked, letting her go and rubbing the back of his neck. Ino silently steamed glaring at the spot where Kiba had been standing a minute ago. Shikamaru sighed, silently wondering if he should bring up the question he was silently pondering. It might get him into trouble but...
"Hey Ino," he said.
"What?" she replied, still steaming from Kiba's rude comments.
"What was your conversation with Uzumaki about?"
Ino immediately flared up again, her eyes blazing with annoyance and anger. "For the last time, I am not that desperate for a boyfriend!" she shouted. Shikamaru sighed impatiently. Why did she always have to take things in such an offensive manner?
"That's not what I meant," he groaned, "I meant, what did you talk about?"
"Oh," said Ino surprised. Shikamaru shook his head. Why were women so troublesome? Ino took a deep breath to calm down before answering.
"We talked about uh, Sakura," she answered. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.
"You're setting them up?" he asked. Ino smiled and nodded triumphantly.
"Obviously!"
"You're crazy..."
It was Ino's turn to raise an eyebrow. "I'm crazy?" she repeated.
"Yeah...very crazy..." was all Shikamaru had to say to get Ino mad again.
"Why?" she exclaimed, "I'm doing my friend a huge favor by setting her up with Uzumaki. Plus, he's not really that bad of a guy, I actually happen to think he's kind of cute and well, he could be hot if he was my type, and hey, then again, he just might be my type, I mean sure, he has a cocky attitude but so do all the cool amazing hot guys at school, and then there's how he looks too! And you know what I think he would be my type that is if I wasn't setting him up with Sakura, but does she really deserve a hot guy like Uzumaki? You know I really don't know, I mean when we were in 5th grade she almost threw up on—" Shikamaru shook his head as Ino continued on and on.
"Your point?" he finally asked.
Ino stopped talking abruptly and crossed her arms over her chest. "My point is I'm doing my friend a favor."
Shikamaru shook his head again. "Ino, I sleep during most of class as you know, however, even I know that Sakura hates his guts, and I really don't blame her."
"Why?" asked Ino.
"We had this conversation before..." sighed Shikamaru.
"Is it because you might secretly be jealous that I might be in love with Uzumaki Naruto?" asked Ino dreamily.
Shikamaru shook his head for a third time. "Definitely not." Ino kicked him in the shin. "Ow!" exclaimed Shikamaru as he held his leg in pain. Why did this girl have to be so damn strong?
"Anyway," continued Ino sourly, "I'm setting them up because I can see that Uzumaki really likes her and Sakura needs a boyfriend. There, happy?"
"Not really," replied Shikamaru, his shin still hitting from being brutally abused by Ino. Ino flipped her hair in his face and walked on in front of him. "She's so troublesome," he thought as she got ahead of him, "The most troublesome girl I've ever met."
"Be nice..." Naruto muttered to himself as he stared at the clouds passing by. He sighed and shook his head before rolling over onto his side. He was lying on top of the school before class, watching the clouds go by and contemplating everything that had happened the previous day. The list looked something like this:
1) He had learned Tora's 'true' identity
2) He had met with Teme again and he still hadn't been even remotely recognized
And finally...
3) He had learned the one true secret to winning Haruno's heart
All of these facts could only lead him to shake his head again. Shock, anger and confusion all in one day was leading him to have an aftermath of annoyance. He watched another cloud sail past before jumping to his feet. He sort of wished that Tora or one of his flunkies would suddenly pop out of nowhere so he could take his anger out on something. He got the next best thing, maybe even better.
As he took the stairs back down into the building he saw him standing there, leaning against the wall and looking as cocky and conceited as ever. "Hey Teme!" Naruto shouted. The raven head didn't respond which led Naruto to become even more annoyed. "Uchiha-teme!" he shouted. This time, Sasuke had no choice to look up. This blond idiot had just insulted his family.
"Excuse you?" he asked harshly. Naruto smirked. He had finally gotten the idiot's attention. He was about to shout something back when Sasuke suddenly sighed and stood up straight, heading for what appeared to be his class. "Whatever," he said as he turned his back on Naruto for the third time. Naruto was about to shout to Sasuke again when he heard a high pitched female voice behind him.
"Stop right there!" shouted a girl with pigtails. She was surrounded by another girl with long brown hair and one with short blonde hair. They were each staring at Naruto maliciously.
"What?" asked Naruto in his usual conceited tone.
"How dare you address Uchiha Sasuke that way!" she shouted angrily. Naruto stepped back before responding.
"I'll address him any damn way I want!" he retorted hotly. The girl's eyes blazed from dark brown to red at his statement and Naruto stepped back again.
"How dare you!" she shouted.
"Hey!" called Ino as she suddenly came running in front of Naruto. She shot him a dirty look as she stopped in front of him and turned to the girls.
"What do you want reject?" asked the pigtails girl. Ino clenched her fist as she tried very hard not to kill the girl for calling her such a name. "What's wrong?" mocked the pigtails girl, "Remembering a bad experience?"
"Go away," said Ino darkly. The girl smirked, turned to her two 'flunkies', nodded and then the three of them were off. Once they were out of sight, Naruto had to open his big mouth again.
"Woah, who were they?" he asked in amazement. Ino turned to him angrily.
"What did I tell you about insulting Uchiha Sasuke?" she asked exasperatedly. Naruto quickly held up his hands in protest.
"Don't tell me you're going to suddenly attack me like those fangirls just for calling him a teme!" he exclaimed. Ino kicked him in the shin, just as she had done to Shikamaru the previous day.
"Don't call me a fangirl!" she shouted. He nodded more out of fear of more pain than agreement.
"Fine," he said. "Now who were they?" he asked annoyed.
Ino sighed. "They were, as you adequately stated, Sasuke's fangirls, and he has about fifty of them; just in our class." Naruto scowled.
"I'm telling you Uzumaki," said Ino casually as she started walking towards her class, "Sasuke's a pretty lucky guy. Almost every girl in the class likes him. And that includes, Sakura." Naruto's eyes shot wide open when he head what Ino had said.
"What?!" he exclaimed.
"That's right," replied Ino, "But don't worry when it comes to personality, you both are equally not boyfriend material."
"Hey! That's not true!" exclaimed Naruto defensively; "I'm a thousand times better than that teme!" Ino rolled her eyes.
"Sure..." She began walking towards class with Naruto behind her shouting off random reasons why he was better than Sasuke.
The two actually arrived to class on time and as usual Kakashi was late. "Where's Kakashi?" asked Naruto as they entered the room.
"Late," responded Ino as she headed over to her desk.
"He's late?" exclaimed Naruto. Ino sighed. Naruto had been late every day so he had never actually experienced the famous delay-teacher, Kakashi, making his equally famous delayed arrival. Naruto walked over to his desk and slammed his bag down. "Teme..." he thought angrily as he took his hated English book out. He suddenly glanced at Sakura over at her desk. She had her head buried in another book as usual. "And she likes that teme!" he thought in outrage, "How?!" Without another thought he strode over to Sakura with complete intent of making her his.
A/N: I feel so bad! The event I had planed to happen in chapter EIGHT still hasn't happened yet!! With the way things are going right now this story might prove to be longer than expected! 0-0 I hope people think that's a good thing out there!! Now, I have a really important question but I must wait until next chapter to ask it... -sigh- Quick updates coming up and I've decided to do another deal like I had on chapter 8 (next update expected in 5 days but every review means a day earlier for chapter 11)! Alright, so next time, Naruto gets into even MORE trouble on every aspect of his life. Review to find out! Bye bye! :D
