Title: "Surprise"
Date: Sunday, August 05, 2004
Anime: Naruto
Genre: One-Shot
Sub-Genre: Fluff/Romance
Author: Aya Hodgins
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Shikamaru sat lazily, his eyes roaming over the azure sky for entertaining shapes in the clouds. Before him lay a vast meadow devoid of any annoying, loud, romping ninjas or ninja-wannabes.
Behind him he heard the soft crumpling of feet upon grass. Judging by the sound of depression and the faint scent of lilies, Shikamaru was not surprised when he heard Ino's curt hello.
"Are you just staring at the sky again?" She asked, annoyance in her voice. Ino was rather pissed off at the moment. It was one thing to be denied by Sasuke on a regular basis, but on her birthday? That smarted a bit. Still, Ino's pride could have survived had her day not progressed in such a manner that she found that everyone she spoke to (with the exception of her parents and Sakura-chan) had forgotten her birthday.
And so Ino had gone in search of Shikamaru. She could always bitch to or at him, it was not as if he really cared.
"Not this time," Shikamaru answered in his slurred, lazy speech.
"Then what are you doing?" Ino's annoyed voice had flared to bitching-pitch.
"Listening." He said simply.
"To wha—" Ino began to demand, but was interrupted by Shikamaru placing one finger to his lips to shush her. Ino glowered at the back of his head. Finally giving up, she sat down beside him, her knees drawn up to her chest in an angry pout.
So they sat for a few moments, Shikamaru unphased by his teammate's attitude and Ino increasingly unhappy about...everything.
Stupid boys, thought Ino. They never pay attention to anything important. All they care about are stupid things like food or fighting—
"You might want to put this over your head," Shikamaru's voice broke through Ino's angry thoughts. The object he was holding out to her was his tan overshirt.
Looking at him oddly for a heartbeat, Ino took the shirt and held it over her head and shoulders. Before she could ask why she was hiding beneath his coat, the sky, which had been nearly clear moments before, clouded over and a light rain showered across the grasses of the meadow.
Ino's eyes widened in awe as she saw that, one by one, and then in large groups, butterflies rose from the grass to fly for shelter. Their wings sparkled with rain, purples, yellows, blues, and reds.
As quickly as it had started the rain ended. The last butterfly, a small yellow and black thing, came over and landed on Ino's nose before flying off.
Shikamaru stood, then taking his coat back he helped Ino up as well.
Looking her in the eyes, Shikamaru said "Happy birthday, Ino-chan." And walked casually away.
Ino stood in shock for a moment tears welling in her eyes. Then she smiled. Looking up to the clouds she thought to herself, Well, maybe boys, at least some of them, aren't so hopeless after all.
Fin
Author Notes: kk, I was re-reading this to make sure that it sounded okay and I wanted to clarify something in case what I wrote is misunderstood. Shikamaru did not cause the rain, nor did he make the butterflies do what they did. When he said he was listening, he was listening for the changes in the wind and was concentrating on the moisture in the air. He was timing the rain to see when he should hold out his coat and so on. So ya....No complaints about "Shika can't control water or bugs/insects!!! What's wrong with you??" I explained myself, so there!