Life and Times of Konoha
A collection of one-shots, varies genre.
Story 1: Drifting Clouds
A/N: Humor/General: "shifting clouds" one really random day for Shikamaru unfortunately, very troublesome...ShikaIno ShikaTemari, a one-shot.
It was a really nice day. It was clear and sunny, and no missions were on. A perfect day for Shikamaru to just sit on a tree and look at the clouds.
"I envy you clouds…So free…" he sighed and closed his eys drifting into a deep sleep…That was until….
"SHIKAMARU-KUN!" yelled a loud annoying voice.
Shikamaru quickly awoke and accidentally bonked his head on the branch.
"Troublesome women…So noisy," he brushed off the dirt on him and faced Ino, "What do you want?"
She smiled widely which scared Shikamaru a bit, he thought for a while, 'This is bad…She probably wants something…'
"Well Shika-kun, I was wondering, will you come on a walk with me!"
'She seems too excited to go on a walk, this has got to be bad,' he shook his head, "Um…I'm kind of busy right now."
"Doing what? Looking at the clouds?"
He just stared at her frowning, and then sighed. About to say something he was interrupted by Naruto.
"Shikamaru! Ino! We have to go to granny Tsunade's office!" he smiled at them and quickly disappeared.
'Darn that Naruto, he ruined our special moment…'
'Thank you Naruto! I thought I was dead, she must've had a trap ready for me somewhere…' he smiled and walked towards the fifth Hokage's office.
Ino sad, she also walked slowly, but then she realized that she had a chance alone with him again…
"Shika-kun!" she yelled again grabbing his arm and hanging tight. Shikamaru blushed at this but shook her off, "What's your problem Ino? Damn some women are so troublesome!" he rushed a bit to get ahead of her.
She then frowned but then a huge smirk appeared across her face, "You won't get away that easily Shika-kun!" she rushed in front of him and hugged him tightly; "You can never get away from me my Shikamaru!"
He paused and his eyes grew wide, "Your Shikamaru? When was I yours?"
He shook her off again, but then he went in front of him and made puppy eyes, "Pweas! Pwetty pwetty pweas Shika-kun!"
He frowned and ran ahead, she chased after him fiercely and she was so close behind him, but luckily the Hokage's office was right in front of them. Opening the door he huffed and panted saying a weak I'm here, but then Ino came from behind and jumped on top of him, "GOTCHYA!"
Tsunade and Shizune and also Naruto just stood there staring at them. Tsunade coughed a bit, "You two, um…Get up now! I need you two and Naruto to head for the wind country to the hidden village of sand!"
Shikamaru stood up quickly to this and smiled, "The hidden village of sand?" for once he was actually excited, the memory of his fight with Temari came back, 'That girl, what was her name, Temari? Yes she was really pretty, and she was pretty smart too unlike this girl here,' he looked at Ino who was winking and smiling at him.
"Why are you so excited?" Tsunade asked, "And why Ino are you looking at him like that?" Tsunade smiled, "Oh I see!"
"It's not like that!" Shikamaru said, but Ino got nexcited.
"Yes yes! Tsunade-sama you have got it!"
Naruto just stared at them, then turned to Tsunade-hime, "Granny Tsunade, what do we have to do there?"
"You must escort three nins here, for they must help finish rebuilding the city and protect it for what they have done."
"What three?" Ino asked.
"Um…Let's see, Gaara, Kankurou, and Temari!" The names were so familiar, but Naruto couldn't lay his fingers on it.
"Hmm…They seem so familiar…" then Shikamaru bonked him on the head.
"NARUTO NO BAKA! Don't you remember? They're from the chuunin exam!" Shikamaru hovered over him then sighed and placed his hands in his pockets, "Em…I'm sorry, so we have to escort them here?"
"Yes, and you must get there in two days!"
"What! Two days with two dumb blondes!" (A/N: No offence to blonde people, don't worry I think your smart)
Ino and Naruto's eyes were on fire, enraged with an urge to beat Shikamaru to a pulp.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Ino said first walking towards Shikamaru.
"DID YOU JUST CALL ME AN IDIOT!" Naruto said also cracking his knuckles.
"Heh," Shikamaru just sighed as they approached him. He then yawned which enraged them more and they both swung at him at the same time.
BAM
"Meh," Shikamaru crawled from under the two and brushed the dirt off his pants.
Ino and Naruto now had each others fists in their faces. Ino the first to recover got angry again and went after Naruto, "FIRST YOU HAVE THE INTENTION TO HIT MY SHIKA-KUN AND THEN YOU PUNCH ME!" she ran after him, "Oh your going to get it!" and they ran around the place in circles.
"YOU TWO STOP IT!" Tsunade-sama yelled out grabbing the two.
"Hmm, you seem so cool when you actually do something," Naruto said brushing her away.
"Whatever," Tsunade said, "Now go!"
"Hai!" they all said in unison.
As they walked outside Naruto placed his hands on his head and smiled as they walked towards the gate, but then when he noticed Shikamaru struggling with Ino.
"Yo Shikamaru! Ino wait up!" he caught up to them and got in between them.
'Thank God you're here Naruto she was driving me nuts!' Shikamaru thought sighing and placing his hands back inside his pockets.
'That damn Naruto got in the way…'
"Why are you so close to him Ino? When did you guys get so close!"
"Oh it has only been my dream for so long Naruto!" Ino said happily pushing Naruto away.
"But it's not mine Ino! I have no interest in women, especially one as troublesome as you!" Shikamaru said jumping ahead, and Ino, as annoying as she always was followed him leaving Naruto behind.
After rubbing his head, Naruto grunted and whined, "What the hell? Where in the! Oh crap they must've gone ahead of me!" he then jumped upp and left to follow them.
Shikamaru's POV:
Damn that woman is nuts! At this rate we'll be there in less than an hour. Oh, maybe she planned this to get there faster, yes that could be it. That way we wouldn't have to spend too much time on getting there. Wow she's actually being smart and not complaining for once. But still this is annoying…
"Crap what's your problem!" that kunai almost hit me.
"I'm going to catch you!" she yelled out, I swear her eyes glowed with an evil look. Man she's going crazy, maybe its one of those things that happens once a month…
So I insisted on going faster and I started to hear Naruto from behind, oh yeah, I totally forgot about him. Next thing I knew he was right next to me, I didn't think he was that fast!
"What's going on Shikamaru?" he asked as we ran and hopped.
"I don't know, I guess she's just excited about getting there."
Naruto nodded as kunais came from everywhere. Man that girl is testing my patience! I'm going to kill her when we get there…No wait that would be too troublesome…
Ino's PoV:
Man that Shikamaru is faster then I thought. No wonder why I choose him over Sasuke-kun. Especially ever since he silenced out every single girl, but that was good for Lee though, he and Sakura got together about a week after that. Although it did take a while to get over Sasuke-kun, but now I know what I want.
'No you mustn't do this Ino-chan!' said a little voice in her head, 'You shouldn't force him to like you!'
"Don't worry," Ino quietly said to herself, "He'll learn to like me, I won't force him, besides, who wouldn't love someone like me!" she laughed and so did her inner self.
Naruto's POV:
I hope we get there soon…I'm pretty bored and I wonder what Gaara's up to!
Shikamaru's POV:
Ok then according to my calculations, we'll be there in ten more minutes. That's good, that way this chase will be over…
Ten minutes later we arrived at their gate. Naruto and I took a quick 5 minute rest as we waited for Ino to catch up. For some strange reason she wasn't tired at all!
"You're very fast Shika-kun!" she said walking up to me, I sighed and looked up, "Whatever," I quietly said.
"Hey look who's here, three idiots from Konoha!" a very familiar voice said. I looked away from the clouds to see the three sand nins standing before us.
"Hey Gaara!" Naruto yelled out walking towards the redhead. Although I found it strange, that guy still freaked me out.
"Hello," he said, I was glad he was on our side, he scares the hell out of me.
I turned to his brother, Kankurou, he kind of scared me, but his attidute seemed like a regular persons. He wasn't exactly the strong silent type, but he was kind of the annoying, bragging, and very talkative…kind of like Ino.
I noticed a bit of tension growing somewhere, I turned to their oldest sister, Temari, I kind of liked her, although women were troublesome, so I won't try anything. Besides, she was kind of scary, but she still is prettier than Ino, peh, that Ino scared me too, she's too troublesome…
"So are we going to go now guys?" Naruto asked irritated.
"Sure whatever," Temari said.
"Yeah," Kankurou said.
And Gaara, he just nodded, well, I guess we should go. I shoved my hands into my pockets and looked at the clouds one last time.
"Let's go!" Ino said interrupting my peace, I grunted and glared at her before we moved out.
"Oh! Shika-kun! You're looking at me!" she said eyelashes battering. Geez, hats her problem? I'm glaring at her! Ugh, she's such an annoying baka…
Ino's POV:
OMG! He's looking at me! EEK!
Naruto POV:
Ugh, let's go already! This is annoying, I want to go home, and eat ramen!
Regular POV:
So Shikamaru sighed once again and signaled the others to follow him. He looked behind him to Ino thinking that she might chase after him again but this time, she didn't move, she looked at Temari with a funny look and walked up to her.
"Hey," she said tapping her shoulders; Temari turned to her and said hi.
"Are you looking at Shika-kun?" Ino asked, Temari instantly turned red and shook her head.
"Of course not! Why would I be looking at a baka like him?"
"He's not a baka you bitch! He has the IQ of 200! He's just lazy!"
Shikamaru's ear twitched hearing their arguing, "Shut up you two," he said turning to them.
Gaara nodded and Kankurou said, "Yeah Temari shut up, and you, the blonde girl shut up!"
"You guys, this is getting boring…I know! Ino you can chase us again! No wait, what would be better is if you sand nins chased us, lets see how our speed compares!"
Shikamaru's POV:
I take my hands out from my pockets and look at Naruto with a smile, "It sounds troublesome, but, its probably going to be way more fun than just walking there in complete silence.
I then turn to the sand nins, Kankurou is smiling and Gaara kept his regular face and Temari smiled widely.
"Sure," Kankurou began, "But to warn you, we're pretty fast!"
"Hn," Gaara mumbled, I turned to Ino who had a huge smile on her face, "Ok Shika-kun, let's go!"
Naruto and Ino caught up to me and we nodded at each other to signal our start to run.
"Let's go!" Naruto said.
So we ran for it and with our highest speed we left.
I didn't sense anyone for a while, then I realized that there was one person after me, I thought that they'd all go after us at once, no wait, I turned to my sides and saw that Ino and Naruto have gone.
"Shit," I said, whoever it was, was approaching fast.
I looked back quickly to see a glimpse, I can't believe it that woman Temari is after me, at least it isn't Gaara, he'd probably get me for sure, and that Kankurou would probably nag on about how he's going to catch me.
"O crap," I said, she was coming closer and closer.
"I'm getting closer to you!" she taunted, I turned to see a huge smirk on her face.
"Heh," I said, sounding as confident as I could be. I sped up a bit, we were getting closer to our destination.
Ha, I lost her, and we're almost there, this was a piece of cake, I expected better from-
Temari's POV:
He's pretty fast, but I got him cornered.
Regular POV:
Temari, hidden in the tree made a jump from where she was and landed on Shikamaru's back. He felt her there and blushed a bit.
"Whoa!" he said in sunrise, she smiled at him.
"Gotchya"
Meanwhile, at the gate of konoha, Gaara stood next to Naruto with his regular face as Naruto pouted being caught. Kankurou was arguing with Ino about who got there first, and Shikamaru and Temari we' rent there yet.
Shika and Temari were almost there though, but Temari, on his back pinned him down to the floor. She stuck out her tongue and smiled.
"Ha! Now all that men and women stuff doesn't matter anymore because this troublesome woman just kicked your ass!"
Shikamaru just sighed and laid down on his back to look at the clouds.
"So free," he seemed to say ignoring Temari, this however got her pissed.
"Stop ignoring me you lazy bum!"
Shikamaru sat up and stared at her, she blushed a bit, "What are you looking at?"
"What?" he said continuing to stare, "What else would I be looking at besides your face?"
She turned a bit redder, "And why are you looking at my face?"
"What? You look pretty," he said, this shocked him and Temari. A bit pink he stood up still facing the now red Temari.
"Um…Thanks," she said to him approaching him. His color turned normal and he shoved his hands inside his pocket.
"I respect you Temari," he started turning away, "Your pretty and you're pretty clever too. Although you are noisy, and a bit troublesome, but there hardly is anything that isn't troublesome."
She was still red and smiled at him. She walked up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Both red they walked towards the gate…