Ino drew a kunai and prepared if she had to defend herself against-

"Shikamaru?" she stopped short. She should have recognized her teammate's I-was-just-electrocuted-hairstyle. "What are you doing here?"

"Ino-" he looked up at her. "Where were you? Do you have any idea how troublesome it is waiting for you? And this rain – its so annoying when it never stops and you can't go inside." Ino sighed. She relaxed and her heart rate began to return to normal.

"So, what's up?" she still wasn't certain why he was there.

"Oh, a message from Asuma; tomorrow we're getting a substitute teacher."

"Huh?" Ino was puzzled. "You came all the way to my house in the rain to tell me that?"

"Uh…yeah." He shrugged, his eyes not meeting her's. "Yeah…I did. Whatever, this is troublesome, I gotta go."

"All right…" Ino couldn't help but smile a little. Shikamaru never seemed to stumble on his words.

"Are you all right?" he paused before asking. "Ya kinda ran off after training today and I had to wait here for a while-"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just wasn't feeling so great," she lied unsure of why he'd be concerned. "I was with Izumo though, we got Ramen together."

"Oh, so is he like your lover or something?"

"No!" Ino couldn't help but blush at Shikamaru's wording. "He just asked-"

"Well good cause I needed to ask you if you'd go with me to that thing you need a date for." He interrupted speaking quickly as if not wanting to be on that topic.

"What's that?" She urged him to say it.

"Ya know, that event with the stars – I don't know what it is – it's a real troublesome event, but I was told to ask you."

"Who told you to ask me?" She was curious.

"…No one," he confessed still keeping his same solemn expression, trying to take away from any red in his face. "I just thought it wouldn't be so troublesome if you were there." He looked at the stars waiting for an answer…

I am so horrible, yup, I am. What can I say? I love cliff hangers…ugh, like how we don't know what'll happen to Sasuke until July 2nd when episode 39 is released!! AHHHHH!!

Thanks again for the reviews – see I read what you guys write, and sometimes it changes the route of the story… ^_^