KaiKaiCutie: I am so sorry that i didn't update quickly! haha...but late is better not updating at all right? Hope you'll like this chappie!
Shika-Kun: haha! i noe! i dun like her too! but let's not get too "angry" here since other ppl might like her! anyways, thanks for your review and hope you like this chapter!
ishgreeklady: here you go! a hot and fresh chapter! hehe.
Pandora The Vampire: haha...i will be sure that he will end up with ino since this is the main pairing of this story! blah! hope you like this chappie too!
babykitty2270: lolx..no no! im not gonna end it as a temashika! im sure of that XD! but...haha!
Liltoughiepunkie: im adding on! thanks for your review!
kyuubi kitty: i will be sure to do that XD! thank you for reviewing and hope you like this chappie.
annonymous: thank you thank you! hehe!
Chapter 3: Insensitivity"I just want to know what's wrong with you, Ino."
She paused at the spot and dug in her thought for an answer. What is wrong? I don't know what is wrong. Why am I acting this way? I don't know why I am acting this way. Why do I feel like that I have just been hammered in the heart? I don't know why I do feel like this. She was confusing herself. Why wouldn't she just give him a simple and abstract answer? "Nothing's wrong, Shikamaru."
"No, just tell me what's wrong, Ino." The boy was looking for a better answer.
Without even waiting for her to reply him with a "better" answer, the doorbell rang and here he went to the door for Temari. Ino just stood dumbly in the kitchen alone, staring at his leaving shadow. For a moment, she found her tears finding their way to escape from her eyes. She found herself finally knew the answer to his question.
"Nothing's wrong...because everything is not right."
Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow;
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead;
Walk beside me, and just be my friend.
"Friends, are we only capable of going this far?"
Tonight, Ino lied on the bed on her stomach, alone, in the room. Her legs swung back and forth gently as she flipped the pages of the album she chose from Shikamaru's bookshelf. There were hundred of pictures of the boy. There were pictures of him being a baby, an academy student, a genin, a chuunin and finally a jounin.
There was one particular picture that captured her eyes. A picture with only Shikamaru and herself in it. This picture was taken long time ago. They were still a kid back then.
"Happy 10th year old birthday, Ino-chan!" Today was September 23, Ino's birthday. All her girl and guy friends were sitting in a huge round table. In the middle was an ice cream cake with the words 'happy birthday!' in the center. With that, her friends started giving her tiny presents and blessings.
"Thank you very much!" Ino wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled brightly, "Thank you everyone."
Then, a brown hair boy walked into the restaurant with his parents. With that, a girl in the group whispered, "Hey, if I remember it clearly, today's Shikamaru's birthday too!"
"Really?"
Ino blinked and looked at the family that just entered and smiled, "Hey, let's give him a birthday blessing too then!" The blonde girl stepped out of her spot and walked towards the family. Her groups of friends stared at the scene curiously because Ino did not know that Shikamaru kid very well. Why would she...?
"Shikamaru-kun," Ino grinned and looked at the boy.
"What?" Shikamaru replied with his innocent looking face. His parents were looking at the girl too while realizing that Ino was the daughter of their old friends, Yamanaka Inoshi.
"Happy 10th birthday, Shikamaru-kun!" In a split second, she planted a quick kiss on the boy's cheek. He went completely red within a second. At the same time, the places were filled with people looking at them with a wide opened mouth. She did not care and she assumed that Shikamaru did not care too. "Come on! Let's eat the cake together!" She held his hand in hers and walked back to where her friends were seated. Together, Shikamaru and Ino took a picture together in front of the cake.
And during that whole time when the picture was taken, she was HOLDING his hand.
"Hm? Ino-chan?" Shikamaru blushed as he called for her name. In return, Ino looked at his face questionably. The boy smiled, blushing even brighter, "my birthday was yesterday."
Ino blankly stared at her right hand and put a smile on. Swiftly, she slid the picture out of the album and held it between her fingers. Do you still remember what happened here, Shikamaru? She climbed off the bed and tucked the picture safely into her wallet.
The two jounins panted for air. Yes, they had been training with each other ever since they completed a mission together at the hidden mist village. They realized that they would make a great training partner and also a team. Though they did not have the same fighting style, they had a brain that could function and work well under any circumstance.
Both Shikamaru and Temari sat themselves against the tree trunk, opposite from each other. Shikamaru never liked to be too close to girls and Temari was no exception. Sometimes, other jounins who did not know this boy too well thought that he had no interest in girls at all. Why wouldn't he want to take this chance of getting close to a hot girl? Did he have someone else to love or was he just planning to not get a girlfriend at all? He wiped the sweat off his forehead and stood up. "Let's try that again, Temari."
The blonde looked over her shoulder and spoke out in a quiet tone, "Let's not. You were very distracted."
The shadow boy placed his hands onto his hips and asked lazily, "How was I distracted? I was paying attention all the time."
Temari stood up and turned her head to his direction. He backed away a bit when she stopped in front of him. The woman grabbed his arm forcefully and raised it high in the air; he winced at the sudden pain flowing through the arm, "If you weren't distracted, why would you get hit by a kunai on the arm?"
Shikamaru withdrawn his arm from the woman and snorted, "There's always accidents and injuries in training, Temari."
"That was just a simple strike, Shikamaru," she pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped off the blood from his arm. As if the contact burnt his wound, Shikamaru took a step away from her and grabbed the handkerchief from her hand. She already got used to it. Temari sighed and stared at him, "It would be funny if I tell other jounins that you cannot even dodge a kunai which was obvious to catch."
"Troublesome."
"Let's just call it a day then," the woman went over to where their belongings sat and stuffed her weapons in, "Besides, it's getting late already. I am sure my brothers are getting worried."
"Getting worried? Just when did your brothers will get worried about you?" Shikamaru smirked and threw the backpack over his shoulders.
Temari smirked back and teased, "they are worried about YOU getting beaten up by me!"
The boy shrugged his shoulders and stared at the grass, "I doubt that you can even touch a single trend of hair of-" Without even finishing the whole sentence, he received a hard smack on his injured arm and he immediately grunted at the pain and sighed, "fine, you are capable of beating me up."
The woman turned around and walked towards the direction of her apartment when suddenly a voice called for her, "Temari?" She looked over her shoulder as a response to his call. In the darkness, she noticed that he began to walk towards her and stopped beside her.
"I will walk you home."
Temari was startled by his offered but soon recovered from the shock. She simply nodded her head and waited for the boy to catch up.
Throughout their journey back to her house was completely quiet and boring, Shikamaru was yawning and hoping that they would be there soon. Actually, this offer was just an excuse of not going home too early. He did not know how to face Ino anymore. On the other hand, Temari was in a good mood. If only the boy turned and looked at her for a second, he would notice how pink her cheeks were and how happily she was smiling to herself. This woman had a small crush on Shikamaru. In fact, she liked him a lot. She stared at the boy's shadow and her own, she smiled at how close their shadows were standing next to each other.
However, her happiness was soon over. They arrived to their destination already.
The clock struck eleven.
Ino replaced her normal outfit with her pajamas: a white tank top and a pair of gray shorts. She untied her ponytail and allowed her blonde hair to lie peacefully onto her shoulders. She sat at the desk and stared at the clock as time ticked away. She was waiting for him to come back.
Then, she heard showering going on in the master bedroom. That was when she gave up the thought of staying up till he came back. Better go to bed now or else the adults will see me as a late sleeper. Ino switched off the light and hop onto the bed. She let out a relaxed sigh and pulled the blanket over her chin. She rolled the blanket around her slim body and sniffed the scent. It smells like Shikamaru. She brought it up to her nose and sniffed the smell once again. She was starting to like this musky smell.
Her whole body relaxed as she rested her head onto the soft pillow and listened to the bird chirping from outside. This is so peaceful. But, the peace around her was broken as soon as she heard the main door of the house opened and closed.
Shikamaru was back.
Ino buried her face into the pillow and grabbed the edge of the blanket over her head. In the darkness, she heard him walking upstairs and the doorknob turning. The door peeled opened and shut within a second.
"Ino?" the boy asked quietly.
She wanted to answer him but a rush of anger just came to her head for no reason. Or maybe there was one. The girl did not reply him; she was pretending to sleep. Her grip around the blanket tightened and she squeezed her eyes shut.
Shikamaru sighed and sat onto the bed, making Ino's body shifted a bit. He turned his head towards the well-hidden girl and sighed again, "Ino, I know that you are not asleep. Stop pretending that you are." There was still no reply. He sighed deeply again, "If you don't tell me what is going on, I can't help you with anything, Ino." He stood up and stared at her form, "I just want to-"
"Go away you insensitive jerk," Ino mumbled out the words through the blanket.
"Ino, how am I being insensitive and a jerk?" Shikamaru questioned her in a quiet tone.
"Go take a shower, Shikamaru!" She chose not to answer the question, "You smell sweaty!"
Silence greeted them then. There was no more conservation going on between the two teenagers anymore. It was partly because Shikamaru thought it was too troublesome to ask or talk with this girl when she was mad. What was she angry about anyways? Instead of going into the bathroom for a shower, he walked towards the table and took out a stack of papers.
Through the blanket, Ino could faintly hear Shikamaru scribbling something onto a piece of paper. Asuma said that the boy thought answering question on the test was troublesome. It was a test! Why would he be writing something now? Then, she heard the bathroom door shut.
Out of curiosity, Ino slid out of the bed and walked towards the desk. Her hand reached for the table lamp and the whole room lighted dimly. She looked at the tiny notes he wrote and, suddenly, cracked out a smile. She picked up the tiny paper and read the passage in a soft tone.
"My insensitiveness does not prove how little I care about you. Just tell this 'jerk' what happened when I come back from shower, okay?"
Ino giggled and grabbed the pencil into her hand. She scribbled something right below what he wrote.
"I guess this troublesome woman will let the jerk to think about the answer tonight. Go to bed early, Shikamaru."
With that, she happily crawled back into the warm blanket and rested herself again, this time, with a smile on.
End of Chapter 3
A/N: hopefully that chapter 4 will be updated soon! But im lack of inspiration lately! Mind giving me suggestion for the next chappie people?