A Good Bonding Experience
Vyctori
A/N: I wrote this last December when I had a moment of free time. While watching Shikamaru's match with Temari, I noticed that Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino all were wearing the same type of earrings, which led to this one-shot. And yes, I know, that's a very, very strange bit of inspiration I got.
The only honorific I've used in this piece is sensei, as apparently there's a whole whack of cultural stuff in it that isn't covered by the translation "Master." I'm too shaky on the other honorifics to include them, plus I find it's distracting in an English fic, so I've let them drop.
Disclaimer: Don't own a scrap of the rights to Naruto, so if you wanna sue me, you're outta luck.
"Come on, Shikamaru!" Ino dragged him along the road by one arm, nearly dislocating his shoulder in the process. "We're going to be late for our appointment if you don't get your lazy butt moving already!"
Shikamaru gave a heavy sigh. "I don't know why I'm doing this."
"You promised!" Ino stopped yanking him about long enough to give him one of those glares.
"You did do just that," Asuma said, amused but not at all helping.
"Yeah, yeah. But of all things, did it have to be this?" Shikamaru complained.
Asuma grinned as he puffed away on his cigarette and slouched along behind his team. They had just recently completed their first C rank mission and did a terrific job on it. The three kids were really clicking, though Asuma was willing to bet that at this point, it was more Chouji and Shikamaru's reluctance to risk the consequences of Ino's rather famous temper than the real stuff. It didn't bother him, and nor was he particularly worried. For now, what they had going was working well, and he had not a doubt that the three of them would start working like a true team. All three of them were great kids, and Asuma was proud of them.
That was why, after the mission was over, he had promised to treat each one of them to an activity of their choice. Chouji's was, predictably enough, an all-you-can-eat night at the Korean barbeque. Shikamaru just wanted a day off to beat his sensei at shougi. However, Ino had a rather unusual request.
"Asuma-sensei, hurry up!" Ino waved at him energetically from in front of the shop. "Honestly, you're just as bad as Shikamaru, here!"
"Geez," was all Shikamaru muttered in response to the slur.
Asuma marginally picked up the pace and entered the small building. Upon walking through the door, a perky young woman greeted them.
"Hi there, and welcome to the Stylish Shinobi!" She gave the four of them a big smile.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes at the name; Chouji just kept on munching what had to be his fifth bag of crisps for the day.
"Mind if you put that away?" the woman asked Chouji. "We try to discourage eating in our shop for sanitary reasons, okay?"
"Well, all right, I suppose." Chouji looked rather disappointed, but put away his snack anyway.
"Now, sir, do the four of you have an appointment?" she asked, looking at Asuma.
"You bet we do!" Ino answered for him and grinned. "Three appointments for ten o'clock, for Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji, and Nara Shikamaru!" She looked up at her sensei. "Sure you don't want to do this, too, Asuma-sensei?"
"Nah." Asuma smiled back. "I'm good."
"Well, okay." Ino didn't look overly upset—after all, this had to have been the sixth time she had asked.
"Asuma-sensei, do I really have to go through with this?" Shikamaru asked, also for the sixth time.
Asuma tried to keep a straight face. "Yes, you do, Shikamaru. It's a good bonding experience for you kids."
"Geez," Shikamaru said again.
Meanwhile, the woman had been checking off their names on a list. "All right. Step this way, you three."
"See you kids in about fifteen minutes." Asuma waved at them and wandered out of the hairdressing salon, ignoring the irritated but resigned look Shikamaru gave him as he left.
"All right, now! So, who's first?" the woman asked as she led them into a small room off to one side.
"Me!" Ino volunteered.
"Great! Sit yourself down in that chair." She pointed at a worn wooden chair in the middle of the room.
Ino plunked herself down and waited patiently for the woman to prepare her supplies.
"Hey, Ino. You never said why you wanted to get your ears pierced, did you?" Chouji asked. He fidgeted slightly, clearly unused to having nothing to eat.
"It's something I always wanted to do," she said as the woman used a cotton swab soaked in rubbing alcohol to clean off her earlobes. "You can get all kinds of neat earrings. Plus I heard Sasuke likes girls with pierced ears." A large grin accompanied the last sentence.
Shikamaru sighed. "So why are you dragging us into this?"
"Excuse me, miss, but could you pick the studs you want?" The woman held out a tray. "Bear in mind you have to keep these in your ears for six weeks; take them out any sooner and the holes will grow over and you'll have to do this all over again. Make sure you really like the pair you pick!"
Ino looked over the selection carefully and pointed to a pair of gold-rimmed glass diamond studs. Having made her selection, she replied, "I'm 'dragging you into this' because it's more fun to do something like this with someone else. Besides, I think the two of you would look really cute with pierced ears!"
"Man." Shikamaru watched disinterestedly as the ear-piercing woman carefully marked two crosses on Ino's earlobes.
Chouji wandered about the small room, looking around. Every so often, he'd glance at the bag he was carrying his snacks in, but didn't quite dare try to sneak a bite since the woman looked up at him now and again to make sure he wasn't disobeying the rules.
Two quick shots from the piercing gun later, Ino hopped off the chair and instantly sought out the hand mirror that was lying on a nearby table to admire the effect. She looked quite pleased, judging from her wide smile.
"All right! Who's next?" The ear-piercing woman's cheerfulness was really starting to get on Shikamaru's nerves.
"I'll go." Chouji set down his bag with care and slid into the chair. He picked a plain gold pair and patiently waited as the woman cleaned his earlobes, marked them, and then pierced his ears.
"And now it's your turn, young man!" The woman motioned for him to sit himself down.
Shikamaru cast a longing glance at the door, but after taking in the glare that had quickly appeared on Ino's face once she had noted his action, he wandered over to the chair and took his turn. Picking plain silver studs, he stared off into space and let his mind go wherever it wanted. When the woman told him he was done, it took him long enough to move that Ino forcefully removed him from the chair, much to his irritation.
"And you're done!" The woman gave them all a perky smile. "Just remember to clean the area with rubbing alcohol every day and to turn your studs in their holes a couple times a day. If you don't, the holes will get infected and that's not very much fun."
Ino and Chouji just nodded at the information. Already, Ino's hand went up to twist the earring in its hole, but quickly stopped as the area was still a little too tender.
"Man, that's troublesome," Shikamaru grumbled. Why did Ino's ideas have to involve so much work, anyway?
"In six weeks, you can take out the studs and put in hoops like these" —the woman held up a small silver circle— "and wear these for a few weeks. Okay?"
"Yup! Thanks a lot!" Ino grinned.
"Yeah, thanks." Chouji nodded, collected his bag, and started to head for the front of the shop where Asuma was waiting.
At Ino's enthusiastic urging, Asuma dutifully admired his team's newest accessories. Then, after asking the price, their sensei paid for the work and soon they were walking back to the training grounds.
"Thanks a lot, Asuma-sensei!" Ino looked as though she was ready to hug her sensei, and would have done so if she hadn't thought her rival might catch her. She was a little too conscious of her dignity to do something embarrassing like that in public.
"That was a pretty neat idea you had, Ino," Chouji said. Between handfuls of crisps, he reached up to touch a new earring. "Wouldn't have done it if you didn't bring me along, but I'm kind of glad you did, now."
Ino looked at Shikamaru with an expectant expression; her sensei laughed.
"Don't bother, Ino. You'll never get a 'thank you' out of him." Asuma sounded amused.
"Yeah, you're right. He's a spoilsport that way." Ino didn't sound too annoyed, though, since, as usual, she had gotten her way. "Now what are we going to do, Asuma-sensei?" she asked, changing the subject.
"Training." Asuma listened in almost sadistic satisfaction as his three charges groaned. "Come on, you three. Let's get moving. Last one to the grounds gets thirty extra pushups." He started to jog.
"It's gonna be Shikamaru!" Ino laughed and sprinted off, leaving the others to catch her.