Title: The Books, The Shougi, and The Girl
Summary: AU: High School Fic. Ino's the popular girl. Shikamaru's the unpopular boy. Can love blossom between the two or will it end as a one-sided love?
Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto and the characters of the manga/anime. This fan fiction was created for fun. Do not sue for any reasons.
Chapter: 4: Deer Farm Part II
Comments: SK dead. Saying sorry doesn't solve anything, but presenting the new chapter does! Oh yes, another thing; I've changed the rating from K+ to T because of… language. Sasuke is now our human curse machine. No, just kidding. Forgive me those who read this story. I'm aware it's the summer so I'm trying to get my butt into gear and write! Just to show how much I care, some responses from last chapter's reviewers!

Death Raptor – I dunno… maybe Tenten does come back? –gasp- Don't worry, I have something else planned. I just… need to get it on the computer first..

FREAKnLOSER – No, he doesn't step in deer poo. Where would you get that idea? Haha.

PSYCH0tic – Why bother with you? JUST KIDDING. Sasuke and Ino make a nice couple. A little. I think.

Miss Ino – I'm continuing… now! Enjoy!

OOO

Shikamaru's eyes snapped open by the two girls sitting in front of him, Chouji, and Sasuke. Ino and Tenten were sitting in the middle passenger seats listening to the same MP3 player, as well as singing softly along to the song. His dad was driving with his mother in the front seat.

Shikamaru seemed to get in touch with reality as he heard Ino's voice hum out 'I love you…' from the lyrics of the unknown song. He was sitting in the middle between Sasuke and Chouji, plainy looking bored as ever. 'Like she'll ever say that to me.' He thought, creasing his mouth into a gloomy smile. He bent his neck backwards and stared at the ceiling of the truck, in which little pieces of crumbly foam were sticking out from the folding. Tracks of streetlights whizzed by as the evening began to settle in on the day of the trip to the Nara deer farm.

They soon arrived after their final drive on a long dirt road leading into a barren grass field that seemed to spread far out over the horizon of the earth. Shikato parked the truck in a garage next to one of the three cabins on the farm. The girls hopped out and ran to see the view of the fields while the boys gathered the bags from the back of the vehicle. Chouji held his bag, but Shikamaru carried his and Tenten's, and Sasuke with his and Ino's.

"Wooooooow!" Ino gleamed. "Look at the view! You can see on for miles…"

"This is soooo amazing! There's nothing like this back in the village. No trees… just flat ground! Cool…" Tenten said.

Shikamaru was about to topple over, noting how heavy Tenten's bag was. He wondered what exactly she brought to the trip, and if he should be frightened. "Oy, oy! Get your bag. It's heavy." He hollered. Tenten went over to him and took it from his grasp, and set it down to the ground. Ino did the same, as Shikamaru's mother and father stepped out in front of all of them.

"Welcome to my farm." Shikato started. "The girls will be sleeping in that cabin over there." He pointed to a cabin on his right. "And the boys will be next to them, right there." He pointed to the cabin next to it. The two housings were identical, and the third was next to the barn, on the opposite side. The third was bigger, assumed to be the main cabin. "Ya'll will be working bright and early tomorrow so you should get to bed soon." He started walking to the main cabin and Shikamaru's mother followed, leaving all five teens to their lonesome. They walked together to the cabins before saying their goodnights.

"Night boys! We'll see you bright and early!" Tenten said.

"G'night and sweet dreams!" Ino winked, which was focused on Sasuke. Shikamaru frowned.

"I guess we'll be seeing you girls tomorrow. See ya." Shikamaru said as he swaggered into the boys' cabin. Chouji bowed to the girls and followed, and Sasuke crept behind. Shikamaru threw his bag onto the wooden flooring and belly-flopped onto the bed closest to the door. Chouji switched on the light, and the illumination lit the interior. Inside were two more oak beds, and a door, leading to the bathroom.

"Listen up, Nara." Sasuke ordered out of the silence. The said teenager and Chouji looked at him, dumbfounded. Since when did the most popular boy in their junior year speak to them, the total losers that they were? Oh, just now.

"What?" Shikamaru replied in a defensive, bored tone. He sat up on the bed, which bobbed a little, under his weight. Sasuke stuck his hands into his pockets of his jeans, and walked to the foot of Shikamaru's bed. He stared down at him, emotionless. Then a tug on his mouth sent his face into a smirk. What could that possibly mean…

"How about we play a little… prank. Say… on the girls?" Sasuke said. Shikamaru looked at him, his expression surprised and confused. A prank? All he wanted to do right now was to eat a few junk foods, maybe read a few pages of his book, but a prank? Things were about to get real interesting.

"A prank? Eeeh…" Shikamaru drawled. "What… kind of prank?"

"Before we get into that, we need to… form an alliance." Sasuke shrugged. They weren't exactly friends, let alone acquaintances. But Shikamaru could work with being allies. If Sasuke was asking for help, who was he to turn him down? This was his chance to get to know the Uchiha better, and what better way to do it than to go up against a male's lifelong rival, the female? A silly little thing as a prank could hide whatever reason the boys had to do it in the first place. Plus, Shikamaru was bored out of his mind, and had nothing better to do than to count the planks of wood on the ceiling while he was trying to sleep. The battle for dominance (and bragging rights) was up for grabs, and Shikamaru was holding it in the palms of his hands.

"Alright then. Let's shake on it." Shikamaru said, raising his hand out to the Uchiha. Sasuke complied with an evil smile on his face, and took Shikamaru's hand in a deal of a handshake.

"Is this a good idea, Shikamaru?" Chouji asked his best friend. "Well, whatever you guys are planning, I don't want any part of it." With that, Chouji plopped himself on the bed next to Shikamaru's, and ripped open a fresh bag of potato chips.

"Okay then, what's the plan?" Shikamaru said, giving room for Sasuke to sit on his bed, while he sat cross-legged. Sasuke planted himself on the edge of the bed, also setting a drawstring sack on the bed sheets. He pulled on the edges of the opening, and flipped the sack upside down, revealing objects of mass destruction. Mass destruction to the girls' prides, of course.

"We're gonna sneak into their cabin and ransack the place. It'll be awesome…" Sasuke said. There on the bed lay things such as whipped cream, a jar of honey, balls of yarn, toilet paper, and balloons. Also a metallic, compact digital camera lay gleaming on the bed.

"I don't want to be assuming… but you don't look like the type to play such childish tricks." Shikamaru said.

"Hey… it gets a little boring having to walk around the school with girls swooning all over you, and all you can do is sit there. And I don't want that player persona embedded into my profile, so I just seem cold and mean." Sasuke explained. So that was it. Shikamaru had everything he thought about the great Uchiha all wrong. He was just another pretty boy who didn't want anything to do with girls. Either that, or his hormones hadn't kicked in yet, which was highly unlikely. Sasuke seemed nice enough, for now anyway.

"I see…"

"Well. Since you're the smart one, you'll have to come up with the plan." Sasuke perked. The smirk on his face was deepening, thinking of all the ways to humiliate Ino and Tenten. Bent on thoughts of torture, Sasuke never even went on to actually plan the whole thing out. And we thought he was smarter than that…

"Wha…?" Shikamaru sat back, agape.

This was his ultimate punishment, his ultimate karma for that matter, for bothering to muse about all the popular kids at school. He sighed in defeat and spotted a piece of chalk from the contents of the sack and got down on the wooden floor, beginning to draw out the evil schemes that would arise in a matter of minutes…

OOO

The night was pitch black and miniscule stars scattered the sky as Shikamaru hopped out the window, Sasuke following carrying the bag. They had changed into black sweatpants and black hoodies, and just to make Sasuke shut up, Shikamaru agreed to smother black face paint in two lines, like football players do, each on either cheek. They walked along wheat grass and cold hard dirt until they approached the window to the girls' cabin. The window was low enough to climb through, but the problem was opening it without waking the cabin's sleeping members.

"Ssh. I'll get it open and you find a stick to hold it up." Sasuke whispered and Shikamaru nodded, looking behind him in the grass for a branch. Meanwhile, Sasuke placed his numb fingers under the old, chipping wood that was the frame of the windowpane, and pressured under it to try and slowly pry it open. It made a weak chipping sound and finally let way, allowing Sasuke to push it open. Shikamaru succeed in finding a good-sized stick to hold up the window, and handed it to Sasuke, who set it vertical on the left side of the frame. Sasuke then hopped backwards and sat on the sill, afterwards leaning all the way backwards till his head was upside down, inches from the floor. He set his hands on the floor and forced the rest of his body to roll into the room, and silently landed on his feet. He stood up and reached for the bag that Shikamaru handed him.

Shikamaru himself got into the cabin, and looked around, adjusting his eyes to the darkness. He could make out the slight outline figures of the two girls, lying on beds opposite each other. He looked over at Sasuke who brought out two pairs of fuzzy earmuffs. Shikamaru drawled out a long, purposeful sigh.

"Is this necessary? I mean girls can be heavy sleepers too ya know and I just think-"

"Nara, c'mon. I'm smart too." Sasuke said, and tossed one pair to Shikamaru, who hurriedly caught it. He then walked over to Tenten's bed. "It's just for extra insurance they don't wake up. Okay?" He slid the earmuff covers over Tenten's ears and smiled as she snuggled further into her blanket. "You go put those on Ino. I'll go get the stuff."

Shikamaru swallowed down a large amount of saliva and cocked his head slowly in Ino's direction. He made his way towards her in light steps, fearful to wake both girls and ruin the whole shindig. As he stopped at the head of her bed he looked down at her with nervous eyes. Beads of sweat started to pour down his face as he lifted the earmuffs over her head. Because Ino was facing away from Shikamaru, it made his job slightly harder.

Shikamaru's POV

I was starting to feel light-headed and the room seemed to begin to spin. Of course in reality that's just me freaking out, but real, real quietly. Want to know a little tidbit about this memory I have? Even if you say no, I'll tell you.

I remember I was about seven years old; a short reserved little Nara, who was grounded from accidentally opening the deer pen one day, and let most of the deer out to roam. Boy, did my dad have a complex! Like, steam coming out of his ears mad. What I meant by accident was that I just sort of… wanted to pet one of the baby deer. I mean, who doesn't at such a tender age of seven? Everything seemed big and fascinating in the world, and animals were supposedly cute and 'friendly'. So I unlatched the rusty lock off of the fence and pushed it open. A little too open. Enough for a deer to spot the entrance and run for it. I remember I ducked and covered right in front of the stampede. I still feel lucky that I didn't get trampled over by those menacing… sharp… hooves… Erm. Yep. This is why I have this 'phobia' of silence then a suspicion something bad will happen. Which usually does. Which might explain why I'm cautious more than I used to be.

Then all of a sudden I hear Ino yawn and turn over. Facing me STILL without the earmuffs. I panicked and stepped backwards. I caught my foot on something and slipped. I caught myself on the nightstand, holding up my weight with my left arm. Phew. I stood back up and looked around for Sasuke. He was busy lining the walls with yarn. I faced Ino yet again and she had shifted onto her back. This was the perfect opportunity to finally get the earmuffs on her. I lifted the thing again, and softly set it onto her ears. I watched her face in the process, looking closely at where the moonlight hit the bridge of her nose, and the curve of her cheek. I couldn't exactly put into words how she looked, but I felt happy inside. Is this what people call a crush? Something so out of reach even though you're just inches away from it…

"Nara!" I heard a forced whisper from the other side of the room. "Help me with this bucket!" I stood back up and stepped over to the doorway where Sasuke had set up a trigger system over the entrance with clear thread and pieces of strong scotch tape. I could only move so slowly as to not touch any of the threads. They were practically invisible to the naked eye, but the small glimmer from the moon outside the window gave away their positions. I steadied the bucket above my head as Sasuke secured it with an eyehook in the ceiling.

"What's in the bucket anyway?"

"Just water. Mixed in with a little chocolate syrup…"

"Sasuke!"

"What? If this is gonna be a 'sweet' victory, might as well make it literal."

He stepped off the chair and brought it back under the desk in the far back of the room. As he did that, I looked around at all the other things he set up. I walked over to Tenten's bed and saw a clear thread taped to her forehead. Then I followed the thread above her head and saw a balloon filled with who knows what hanging from the ceiling. I imagined her sitting up oblivious to the trap and… SPLOOSH! I was too caught up in Tenten's trap that I forgot I had left Ino in the hands of Sasuke…

It was too late to find out when Sasuke snuck over and grabbed at my sweater, tugging me to the window.

"I saw Ino crack her eyes open. We gotta leave now!" He hurriedly said and practically threw me out the window as I landed on my side in the grass. He hopped out, bag in hand, and we ran back to our cabin. I turned the knob and noticed Sasuke staring out at the sky, his hands stuffed into his pockets.

"You coming in?"

"Nah, I'll stay out here for a bit. That was pretty great, wasn't it Nara?"

"I guess… yeah."

He continued to look up and dug around in his right pocket, pulling out a small white box. He flipped the lid off and pulled out what seemed to be a cigarette. Who knew the all mighty Uchiha Sasuke was a smoker? He didn't seem like the type, but he brought out a lighter and lit the cigarette and sucked in. He put the lighter away and blew out the nasty fumes into the air. The breeze drifted the smell to me, and I waved a hand in front of my face. He looked at me.

"Oh, sorry 'bout that."

"That's okay." I turned to look up at the sky as well. The sky was still its midnight black with the stars glittering away. "Since… when did you become a smoker? I mean, you don't look like one."

"Not long. I've only done it a couple of times. I came with you guys to get away from home."

"I see…"

The mysterious aurora around the Uchiha aroused my curiosity. There was more to this guy than good looks and the black hair atop his head? I had to ask. Popular people were more interesting than I thought.

"What's up with home nowadays?"

"My brother. Ever since our parents died, all he's been doing is drinking with his buddies and sleeping around. That bastard of a brother… and to think that I looked up to him…" He raised the cig up to his mouth and stuck it in. "He's not even up paying for the bills. He gets his playboy bunnies to give him money for good sex. What a crap life huh."

"I'm… sorry to hear that. But it's no excuse to start smoking, I think. Through what I'm hearing, you're starting to act like him." I paused when I noticed he was staring at me. Oh no. My know-it-all brain was nosing in. This is what happens when I oppose other people. I end up acting in my own drunk way and I can't do anything to stop it.

"Go on…" He said, and took the cig out of his mouth and flicked off the dead ashes onto the boards below us. I was surprised he was interested in what I had to say. I continued, back to gazing into the stars.

"Start this and it could lead down that sad, depressed road. All you'll ever achieve is being another teenager in a statistic of high-school dropouts. You don't want that, do you? Soon, you'll be having sex with girls you don't know from drinking parties and end up with your wallet stolen in the morning, plus having the mother of all hangovers."

After, there was a long silence. I could hear the chirping of crickets even. I turned to look at him, and saw him staring at his cigarette butt. He threw it down and smashed it in with the toe of his shoe.

"I quit." He looked at me and grinned. "C'mon. Let's hit the sack. I'm tired…"

We headed back inside and changed into our sleep clothes. I sat on the edge of my bed and swung my feet over. I rolled onto my side, facing the wall. I closed my eyes, recalling the image of Ino's sleeping face…

OOO

I can't remember the last time I heard such a loud, ear-bleeding scream, or two going off at the same time for that matter. I sat up and hopped off the bed, my feet wobbling as that morning rush crowded through my head. I grabbed for the door and flung it open as I looked over to the girls' cabin. Sasuke was already outside, laughing his head off and camera ready. He was still in his dark blue boxer shorts and a gray tank top. As for me I had on forest green drawstring pants and a black tee. Then I finally noticed Chouji standing next to him chuckling as well. Apparently I slept through something…

Then as I walked over the girls' cabin's door opened and the bucket's trigger went off. I saw a mess of blonde hair just before the goop of syrup made a loud splash onto her face just as she tilted her head up. I heard the click of Sasuke's camera. Ino then proceeded to wipe the chocolate off her face with the cuff of her sweater. Tenten stepped next to her. The look on her face was past angry, and past cross. It was more of a 'ifyoudon'truninthenext2secondsI'llkillyou' look. I imagined storm clouds behind the two and a flash of lightning jolting around.

"Sasuke……" Tenten seethed. Her hair was a mess. I could see patches of white in her hair, assuming it was the whipped cream. Then I remembered the trap with the balloon hanging over her. Then I remembered honey… I scanned over them once more. Then something hit me. They were hiding something.

"Shika…" Ino drawled. Then like a cheetah in the jungle she lunged at me. "…MARU!"

I ran for it. Hell, I sprinted off.

Then just as I started slowing down, I felt something like water being shot into my back. I glanced behind me. Ino was chasing me with a water gun! What was worse was that she was squirting something that wasn't water at me! We were in the middle of the field and I stopped and turned around. Ino wasn't so quick to stop, so I caught her and I grabbed for the water gun with one hand, with my other arm locked around her waist to steady ourselves before we fell in a heap on the ground. I started laughing.

"Whoa there! I like this shirt and I don't want to have to use it as a rag in the near future!" I snatched the water gun free from her grip and she reached for it, but I held it as high as I could above the both of us.

"Give it back! C'mooon…" She cried out, still reaching. Then she began laughing along with me. I handed her back her gun and we continued to laugh. Then I remembered I still had my arm around her. I quickly withdrew it and turned away, scratching the back of my head in embarrassment.

"You guys were pretty sneaky." I heard her huff out.

"It was all Sasuke's idea, I swear."

"You went along with it. That was brave of you."

"Yeah… I guess it was."

I looked at her and found her staring at me, smiling. How embarrassing… I tore my eyes away from hers and stared down at the grass.

"Well, c'mon! Let's get back to the cabins and see what the others are doing!"

Ino snaked an arm around mine and hugged it tightly for a brief moment. It felt good to walk with her, with her arm around my own and all. Aside from my shirt being super sticky and her hair covered in goo, we made quite the pair. I wonder if this is what it'd be like if we were married on our wedding day; having said our vows and after, running down the runway out to our 'Just Married' car.

I felt myself smiling, even grinning. But I hid it from her. I was just too embarrassed.

We approached the cabins and saw Tenten and Sasuke sitting on the steps of the girls' cabin. Sasuke was covered in whipped cream and chocolate syrup himself. I guess Tenten got into his stash and nailed him with it.

"So she got you too." I said. He ran his chocolate covered hands through his hair for added effect. We laughed. I saw Chouji holding Sasuke's camera and he snapped a shot of us.

"But we totally won." He held a hand out and we high-fived.

"I thought I saw something last night. It was one of you two. I knew it!" Ino said as she grabbed at the front of my shirt and dabbed her face in it.

"Hey!" I shouted as I gently pushed her back and everyone else laughed at us. I looked at Chouji again, then saw cans of whipped cream sitting next to Sasuke. Chouji was spotless while the rest of us were down right dirty. That was not fair. Not fair at all…

"Hey Sasuke, are those empty?" I pointed at them.

"No, why?"

"Grab one." I reached for one myself and ran over to Chouji and sprayed him with it. Sasuke did the same thing while Tenten and Ino grabbed bottles of chocolate syrup and squeezed above him. I got in the act somehow and I felt the syrup slide down my neck and my forehead.

It was a great morning on the deer farm, up until my dad saw how messy the girls' cabin was.

Chocolate and honey and cream everywhere. He almost fainted. Sasuke took a shot of my dad's expression.

After a few good yells and orders, we were changed and cleaning off all the walls and floors. It was a sweet victory, as Sasuke said.

Pretty sweet.

OOO

I want to spray whipped cream and pour chocolate syrup everywhere.
It sounds fun and exciting. But I'm a plain person who has no life.
So I'm not allowed to do that.
Hahaha.

Did I make Sasuke OOC? My bad. Too bad.
Anyway thank you for reading! Next installment should come… 'soon'.
Kick me if it doesn't. Review!

SK.