A Team Ten Fanfic
by aishuu
The first time Ino kissed Shikamaru, she felt like she was kissing a sack of potatoes.
She'd weighed things carefully before kissing him, knowing that once spent, a first kiss could never be reclaimed. Sakura had kissed Lee the week before, and there was no way she would let her rival get ahead of her.
Ino had considered her options: the obvious choice was Shikamaru or Chouji. She'd briefly considered Neji since he was amazingly good looking, but had dismissed that idea almost immediately. Tenten wasn't dating him exactly, but she was quick with her kunai whenever another young woman expressed interest in the Hyuuga prodigy. Ino wasn't stupid.
Chouji, she'd thought on reflection, was growing into a handsome man, if a girl was after the muscular type. She'd always been drawn more toward the pretty boys, though, so she'd decided Shikamaru was a better bet. He wasn't anywhere near as good-looking as Sasuke, but she liked his smile. Besides, Shikamaru wouldn't misinterpret her motives.
She cornered him right before they were supposed to pick Chouji up for training. She always met him behind his house in the morning, and then they would cut through the forest behind his house. Shikamaru's house was out of the way for her, since she lived in the flower shop in the middle of village but someone had to make sure he got up, and his mother wasn't always home.
Shikamaru stepped back warily as she invaded his usual personal space, but was wise enough not to flee. Ino would have killed him if he tried that.
She shut her eyes, leaned in, and kissed him.
Kissing, she decided, was definitely overrated. Shikamaru's lips were slightly chapped, although warm. It might have been better if he reacted or something, but her kiss seemed to freeze him solid. Stubbornly she pressed on, hoping for something. For a second she thought of slipping him a bit of tongue, but the idea revolted her. She didn't have any idea what he had for breakfast, or if he'd brushed his teeth that morning. Shikamaru was kind of slovenly.
After a couple moments she decided she had enough, and let him go. He just stared at her, with those disconcertingly intelligent eyes of his, and she tried to smirk in satisfaction as she pulled away. She was fourteen, and proud of how her body was developing. There was no way she'd let Shikamaru's lack of reaction rain of her parade. Sure, it hadn't been romantic or exciting, but it had been her first kiss.
"Why'd you do that?" he asked.
He wasn't passing judgment yet, which was a good thing. "Because I wanted to," she said, shrugging her shoulders in an attempt to dismiss the matter. Now that the deed was done, there was nothing to talk about.
"Lee kissed Sakura last week, didn't he?" Shikamaru asked.
It was annoying have a genius for a teammate sometimes, she thought. He always managed to see right through her. "So what if he did? I just gave you my first kiss, aren't you honored?" she retorted. She tried to give him one of those smolderingly sensual looks she'd been practicing in the mirror.
From his expression, the look on her face was scaring his misogynistic soul. "Look, Ino, I'm flattered, but I don't like you like that."
"So?" she asked. "You can tell your children your first kiss was stolen by the prettiest girl in the village."
"It wasn't mine," he muttered.
"What?" Her eyebrows lowered into a dangerous frown. "Who was she?" she demanded. She had been sure that there hadn't been any girls hanging around him. She was the only girl he knew, except for that Sand bitch – oh god. She'd just kissed Temari's boyfriend, she was so dead-
"He." Shikmaru's voice interrupted her incipient stage of panic.
"He?" she echoed, unable to process what he was telling her.
"I'm gay," he told her in a flat tone.
She blinked at him in horror. "You're what?"
"I told you I didn't like girls," he said. "Not my fault you didn't pay attention."
This was just getting worse and worse. She'd just completely and utterly wasted her first kiss on a guy who didn't appreciate it. She did the only thing she could think of: she smacked him upside the head with a closed fist, stomping off in annoyance.
Shikamaru was late to practice that day, and Asuma made him do two laps around the village as punishment. He'd glared at Ino, like it was her fault.
She spent the morning stealing glances at Chouji, wondering. Shikamaru and Chouji were best friends, and he was the likeliest candidate for Shikamaru to be gay with. She wondered, though, because she'd noticed Chouji admiring her chest, and she knew he started blushing around Sakura. Maybe he was bisexual.
"It's not him," Shikamaru said at the end of practice.
"What?"
"Chouji's not gay," he said.
"Well, who?" she demanded. She kept trying to picture Shikamaru kissing other guys, and her brain was starting to break. She just couldn't imagine Shikamaru with another guy.
"It's none of your business," he told her, crossing his arms over his chest.
She mirrored his posture. "Oh, really?" she asked in a flat tone of voice.
Shikamaru flinched at that. She knew he recognized the implied challenge. "Ino, just let it go," he told her.
She just gave him a sweet smile.
He shuddered. Yamanaka Ino had one nearly overwhelming flaw: a tendency toward obsession. When she latched onto an idea, she never let it go – and it seemed like his sex life had just become something she wanted to know about. Shikamaru could be equally stubborn, and he was smarter. "Just try it," he challenged.
"I'll know by the end of the week," she promised.
He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked the other way.
Ino knew the best person to talk to would be Chouji. Since Shikamaru had made it clear Chouji wasn't him, she had no qualms about approaching him. Besides, Shikamaru could have been lying. He was usually very truthful (It's too troublesome to keep lies straight, telling the truth is easier, he said) but he had no moral qualms against it.
She cornered Chouji right when he was about to leave, inviting him to her house for a snack. He never turned down free food, but he gave her a suspicious look, having witnessed (although not heard) her minor confrontation with Shikamaru. He wasn't stupid, and he was loyal.
Still, food was food.
Ino puttered around the kitchen as he sat at the breakfast bar watching her. She prepared a small fruit dish for herself before digging into the refrigerator and pulling out a chocolate cake. She knew her mother had intended to serve it as dessert, but she could stop by the bakery and pick something up later. It was for a good cause.
She was wise enough to let Chouji eat half the cake before she asked him a question. "So, Chouji, have you spoken to Shikamaru lately?"
"We saw him this morning, Ino," Chouji replied, examining her like she was none-too-smart.
"Well, yes, but I mean," she replied, "well, has he told you about his boyfriend?" Pretend she knew what was going on. "I'm worried about him." She painted on her best "concerned friend" face.
Chouji set his fork down, before squinting at her with intelligent eyes. He may have been fat, but he wasn't stupid. "I'm not telling you who he's dating," Chouji said firmly.
"So he's dating someone?" Ino pounced. She hadn't considered that his relationship might still be going. "He told you?"
Chouji just gave her a placid look before retrieving his fork and shoveling another mouthful of cake in. "No, but I have eyes, Ino," he told her. He didn't reply to any of her further probes, and she felt annoyance festering.
Chouji was just too loyal sometimes. Didn't he realize that he owed her his loyalty, too? It wasn't like she was trying to hurt Shikamaru. She was just curious.
Ino wasn't a Yamanaka for nothing. Their clan always produced the best spies, since there was no better way to gain information. She waited until Chouji was at the door, before pulling her trump card out, "Shintenshin no Jutsu!"
Okay, it wasn't very sporting of her, and probably questionable morals-wise, but no one denied Ino information she wanted. She would have read Shikamaru's mind, but the one time she'd tried that, she'd been nearly overwhelmed by the amount of thoughts running through his head. Chouji's mind was much simpler, full of direct thought and straightforward plans.
She heard Chouji sigh aloud as she drew the thought to the top of his mind. "Ino, you're snooping," he said.
She was too distracted by what she'd found to have a retort ready. She pulled back, and it took several moments for her to awaken again. Chouji was waiting for her, looking at her with a patient exasperation. "You okay?" he asked.
Ino merely moved her mouth, for once left completely wordless. The images she saw in Chouji's mind actually stunned her.
Chouji patted her on the back consolingly. "Apparently he's a prodigy when it comes to that, too."
The next day she returned to practice pretending nothing's happened. Shikamaru was still Shikamaru, one of her closest friends and smartest teammate. He didn't say anything, and she's relieved when he acted like the kiss incident never happened.
But it took months for her to be able to look Hyuuga Neji in the face without blushing.