Pictures Are Worth A Thousand Kisses

Summary: Ino is making a scrapbook and starts to think about her life and love. InoShika

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter One

The Book

Yamanaka Ino rested her chin on her palm again, watching the lazy afternoon clouds go by. How annoying it was to have nothing to do. Normally at this time of day, Ino would have been chasing after Uchiha Sasuke, but things were different now. He was dating Haruno Sakura and Ino decided that it was fine with her.

For reasons she didn't even understand, Ino really seemed to have lost interest in Sasuke, meaning that he wasn't her true love. Sure he was good looking and talked more then normal, but she just didn't feel anything. It was probably the kiss she never told Sakura about. She had promised not to tell anyone. It had been a year after the chunnin exam, Ino cornered Sasuke and kissed him lightly on the lips but didn't feel anything. She had just stopped chasing him after that. She was pretty much finished with him. He didn't bring her the warm feeling her mother often described as being in love.

Ino adjusted her legs and looked down onto the village. It was really quiet today. She looked down a little more and saw her scrapbook she had been working on. Tomorrow it would be her sixteenth birthday and she was putting a scrapbook together so she could remember her first sixteen years of life. The beginning was mostly photos of her as a baby and in pre-academy.

She had been working on her academy pictures when she stopped. She had found a picture that Sakura and her had been in together, smiling happily. That had been one of the few times. Then there were a few pictures of her teachers, a large class photo and then her picture her father took of her first wearing her bandana, the shining leaf bright in the afternoon sun. These pictures were just spread around and the Sakura picture on top. She glanced down at it again.

She had never met anyone as strange as Sakura. She cried a lot and often. She had been crying when they met and she was crying when they fought, that's all she seemed to have done. Ino however, had forgotten how to cry. She just stopped crying one day.

It was probably after her fifth birthday party, when her mother showed up drunk and raving, hitting Ino over and over again until her father was finally able to stop her. Ino had just crawled up the stairs, bleeding heavily from her mouth, into her room, and sitting at that same window, looked outside, crying every last tear she had. Then she stopped and since then, she took everything with a smile and laugh. She just didn't want to cry maybe or it was too much work.

Heh, now she was starting to sound like Shikamaru.

Nara Shikamaru. That was a weird name.

Ino looked down at her pictures and pushed Sakura aside to find a picture with Master Asuma and Chouji on one side of her, Ino, in the middle, and Shikamaru glaring on the other side. She had her arms around the two younger boys' necks and Asuma smoking in the back, not really looking. Chouji was chewing on some chips but Ino was smiling widely.

That had been after they discovered they were on teams with Asuma as their Master. 'Team ten' was scribbled in the corner and Ino picked it up, flipping to the back. The three other men had singed their names. Ino smiled and put the picture back down. Since that picture it had been hard to get other ones that she didn't sneak up on them to get. She started to flip through her things, leaving the afternoon to laze along without her.

Ino searched her entire room, grabbing every available photo, most of them of her team. There were a few with people like Temari of the Sand, smiling and waving as she left with her brothers, one Ino gladly took. There was one of TenTen, whom had grabbed Neji just in time. Lee sadly got in one she was trying to take once of Sasuke. There were also plenty of those, but she was looking more for ones with her teammates.

A couple had the teams together, there were a few with Naruto eating with Sakura and then finally she reached a box that had all of her own team's pictures. Most were of Shikamaru glaring at her and Chouji eating. Two had Asuma without a cigarette in his mouth and the rest were shots she had snuck up to get. One consisted of Chouji eating while playing with Akamaru, Kiba yelling in the background. Then there were a few of Shikamaru looking at clouds, but one that Ino had always thought was the best was the last one in the box. It had been her and Shikamaru at the noodle shop. It was the only one he had actually looked like he was trying to not smile.

She grabbed her pictures and brought them to her desk at the windowsill and began to work more on her scrapbook. It was getting almost eleven at night before she realized what time it had been. She quietly put her things away and went hunting into her attic. After a few shouts to her dad she finally found what she had been hunting for.

"Go to bed!"

"Whatever! I'm going!"

Ino smiled to her, clutching the box tight to her chest. She just needed one last picture and she could finish her scrapbook. She hurried off to her room and soon was asleep, dreaming of the clouds…

-What do you think? I know this might be a little confusing but bear with me. Flame me if you really don't like it and I'll try to re-write it. COMMENTS PLEASE!
Invader Hog OUT!