IK: This Is Such A Pity was intended to be a songfic a friend wanted me to write. I would've included the lyrics, but FF mods are against it. The song is This Is Such A Pity by Weezer, if you wish to listen while you read. Enjoy.

Yamanaka Ino wasn't the type to break down and cry, which was exactly why she made such a good shinobi. In tough situations, where it seemed like the only thing you wanted to do was break down and cry, Ino was the kind of person who could keep a level head and come up with a solution to that situation.

That was what would have made her a good Shinobi, that is, if she had a personality similar to Hinata's or Tenten's. Hell, even Sakura's would have helped her. It wasn't that she was a bad person. On the contrary, she could be kind, when she wanted to be. Her personality was similar to a cat. Conniving, she would do anything to achieve her goal.

For years, that goal had been Uchiha Sasuke. He had that pretty boy look that made all the girls wild for him and the power to turn straight men's heads with a single, well placed smirk. It was no wonder Ino had fallen for him, nobody could resist his charms. Well, almost nobody. There were the lucky few who could keep a level head while speaking to him. They tended to be rivals uninterested in his looks, but instead interested in his power, which was the other attribute he had been blessed with.

Ino hadn't just fallen for him; she'd fallen for him hard. At an early age, she and her former friend Sakura had made a contest to win his heart. And Ino had done just about everything in her power to succeed, for she was stubborn and refused to give in. She almost gave him a lap dance on one of her more confident days, but decided against it at the last second.

On that day, she'd felt like nothing could stop her, but something did. And that something was pretty big. It had been an ordinary day up until then; she'd gotten up, showered, dried herself off, dressed, eaten, and headed out to meet her team for practice. Even though the teams had long since broken up, they still practiced with each other on occasion, and today was one of those times.

However, Shikamaru had been called away on a last minute mission with several Jounin, one such being their team leader, Asuma. It was just Ino and Chouji, and personally, Ino didn't feel like buying him a meal after practice, which their coach usually paid for. So, after hearing the news from Chouji, she made a half-assed excuse saying she wasn't feeling well all of a sudden, and stumbled back in the direction she came from clutching her stomach.

As she turned a corner, safely out of view of Chouji's sight, she chuckled to herself and straightening her posture, she sprinted down the road, taking advantage of the beautiful weather and her good mood.

She honestly couldn't say where the idea had come from anymore. It had just popped up. It might have been her ruminating on Sasuke and how she'd tried everything but sexual advances so far. It might have been the billboard she passed, advertising Kakashi-san's favorite series of books, Icha Icha Paradise. It could have been the whore house, proudly displaying a sign that read: Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, too. But whatever it was, the idea was there, and so she set off in search of Sasuke-kun.

She wasn't searching for very long, before she heard his voice. She wasn't sure at first what she should do, but she finally decided to sneak up and surprise him, sure that he'd be thrilled by the idea.

Cautiously, she tiptoed up to the tree he was resting against, and rested her back against it, readying herself to spring out and surprise him.

And, surprise him she did. She startled the shit out of Sasuke and Naruto, who at the time was giving Sasuke a blow job. The three stared at each other, Sasuke and Naruto at Ino, and Ino at Naruto and Sasuke for several long moments that felt more like hours.

"I'm going to turn around, walk away and pretend this never happened okay?" She said, about as calmly as one could speak when they saw two boys having oral sex.

Sasuke nodded and Naruto would've but it was quite difficult, as I'm sure you understand, since nobody had moved from the position they happened to be in the moment Ino sprang out at them.

Ino went home and lay on her bed, staring into space for several hours. At about 5 o' clock, a smash could be heard from her room.

Upon realizing what she really had seen; in complete and utter horror, she threw the picture frame that had once held a picture of Sasuke at the wall. The picture had been taken when Sasuke wasn't exactly paying attention, with a camera Ino obtained while cleaning her room one rainy afternoon. It was a bit strange that Ino had managed to capture a rare smile of Sasuke's, on film nonetheless. The glass sheet of the picture frame shattered upon impact with the wall; wood falling to the floor with a clatter, picture fluttering to the floor.

Ino turned the television on. She didn't feel like thinking and the moving pictures would surely be an ideal distraction.

-x-

For the next couple of days, Ino refused to leave her house. Refuse? She wouldn't leave her room. She wouldn't have eaten if her mother hadn't brought her meals to her room. Even with the kind words of encouragement from her parents, she just wouldn't leave.

She wouldn't even speak to them when they came to talk to her. She just turned over and faced the wall when she saw no point to them being there anymore, a signal the conversation was over.

To be honest, Chouji and Asuma were worried about her, but none so much as Shikamaru.

Shikamaru wasn't stupid. Having been Ino's teammate for several years, he could safely say he knew her better than almost anybody. But he doubted anyone remembered the kinds of things she did and said better than him.

And he was definitely the only one who thought something was up when Ino didn't show up for their practice session. In fact, both Chouji and Asuma didn't have a clue where she was when he showed up for practice. And although practice continued despite the fact that Ino wasn't there, Shikamaru just wasn't throwing himself into it. He didn't normally, but this was even worse than he normally was. Although Chouji didn't notice it, since Shikamaru was several times stronger than him even normally, Asuma did.

Shikamaru had never expected to be this… affected by a girl like Ino. Though it wasn't true she wasn't an ordinary girl, and was in fact quite a bit eccentric, she was still pretty average upon first glimpse… So why didn't his heart fully agree with his head?

So, when Asuma decided to call it a wrap much earlier than usual, Shikamaru was almost relieved. Chouji was too psyched about getting food earlier than usual and for far less work than he normally did, to notice when Asuma took Shikamaru aside. He told him why he'd ended the practice early and exempted him from the after practice meal.

"I know you're worried about Ino… We all are. Chouji told me she went home sick from the practice we would've had yesterday, though he disregarded it. I'd appreciate if you could go visit her and then come visit me when you're done and tell me how she's doing. Okay?"

Shikamaru took off pretty fast for someone as lazy as him. Chouji wouldn't have even noticed he was gone, had Asuma not told him. Food can do that to you sometimes.

-x-

Ino's mother was at first a bit reluctant to let Shikamaru in, but eventually did so. She was worried about Ino, and felt that Shikamaru, as her teammate, could probably do a better job at rousing her.

Shikamaru hadn't ever really been in Ino's home. This being his first time, he couldn't help but affix his gaze to certain items or objects. The pictures of Ino and her parents lining the walls… He wished he could have been as close to his parents as she was to hers. She looked so happy in those pictures, being with her parents. But his parents had never understood him. He'd been blessed with genius, and although his father was smart, he'd never necessarily understood Shikamaru. Teenagers were hard to understand after all, even for a super genius family like them.

He'd adopted the laziness to try to fit in with his classmates when he started school, because earlier on in life he hadn't been as lazy as he was now. Heck, he hadn't really been lazy at all. He'd run around in the fields and had fun, just like every other kid his age. But the laziness? It just… stuck. Shikamaru, lost in thought, hadn't realized he'd finished walking up the stairs and had made it to her bedroom doors.

Gently, he tapped on the door, and when he received no answer, pushed the door open just enough to pop his head inside the room. "Ino?" He asked. "You okay?"

"No," said a muffled voice from below. Shikamaru lowered his gaze, and saw Ino was lying on her bed, buried under the blankets with her head face down on the pillow. She sat up, looking away from him. "Do I fucking look okay?" She asked, not bothering to turn her head. She was avoiding looking at him.

"No..." He responded, confused.

"Well, there's your answer." She snapped, and flopped back down on the bed, shoving a pillow over top of her head. "Now go away, and let me sleep."

Shikamaru took a step farther into her room, and closer to her bed. He glanced around, never having been in Ino's bedroom; he'd always wondered what it was like. It was small, almost eerily quaint. Big bed, television, a few ornaments, a desk. Nothing fancy, and yet...

There was a nice display of flowers in a vase on her desk. They captured your eyes and gave the room life. He would have expected nothing less from the Yamanaka home, masters of flower arrangement. There were black roses in the vase at the moment though. Almost as if she was mourning the death of someone… Or likely, something.

"Look, why are you so mad at me? I just came to see if you were okay, and you bite my head off." He said, in a tone much higher than his usual. "Forgive me for being worried about one of my comrades."

Shikamaru knew he'd hit home when he saw her back stiffen. He felt satisfaction, until he noticed her shoulders shaking, and heard the muffled sob she tried to hide with the pillow.

He groaned, feeling like the most despicable guy ever, and walked over to her bed, sitting down. He put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her up, wrapping his arms around her in what was meant to be a genuine hug, but felt more like a half-assed effort to make her feel better. "I'm sorry for blowing up at you…" He tiredly explained as she held the pillow up to her head to keep her tear stained face hidden from his view.

"Do you want to explain why you've become like this? You've never been like this; nothing's ever seemed to get you down… You're not a big wimp who cries over the stupidest things, so it had to be something bad. Just tell me. I'll listen. I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to, also."

Ino pulled the pillow away from her face and wiped her face with the arm of her nightgown. And before Shikamaru knew what was coming, she drew back her arm and slapped him right across the face. Then she grabbed his hand, and threw him out of her room. "I'm getting dressed, wait outside." She snapped, and slammed the door in his face.

Shikamaru was too stunned to respond. He just stood there, with a hand on the cheek she'd slapped, waiting for her to get dressed, wondering why the hell she'd just done what she did. Ino tended to act on a whim, and he figured this was just another of those times. Hell, who was he kidding? He'd offered to let her spill everything to him. Him. If Ino was going to tell anyone, he was one of the last people she'd tell.

Ten minutes later, the door opened, and there stood the Ino he'd come to know and love. Well, not really love, more of a certain fondness from knowing her and being her partner. If you hang around someone for long enough, without them ever necessarily doing anything bad to you, but just being themselves, eventually you grow fond towards them. Even if you don't like all their little quirks. Eventually you may even find yourself falling for them.

"Are you going to just stand there, staring into space like an idiot, or are you going to come for a walk with me? You're the one who wanted to know what was wrong with me…"

Shikamaru managed to stir himself out of his musings, and nodded once, following her out of the house.

-x-

"Have you ever been so deeply in love with someone you didn't notice any of their flaws until they hit you in the face, all at once?"

Ino said to him, once they'd started out on their walk.

"N-" Shikamaru started to respond, but Ino cut him off.

"I'm sorry, I forgot, guys don't love with their hearts. What I'm getting at is, I really, really liked Sasuke and I never noticed any of his flaws, but when I learned he was gay… I lost interest, sort of. It actually kind of repelled me. I had to lose interest. There was absolutely no chance for me, if he was gay. He could always be bisexual, but I doubt it. So I've been spending the last couple of days getting over it. I'm sorry if you find this a bit hard to understand because you've probably never loved someone before, or it may seem hard to comprehend that Yamanaka Ino could actually care about someone."

Shikamaru mulled over what she had said. "And, you're sure he's gay? Like, really, really, 100 percent sure?"

"Absolutely positive. Let's just say I walked in on an intimate moment between him and a member of the same sex, completely by accident…"

"Naruto…?" He asked cautiously, not sure what to say in case she got angry.

"Who else would it be? Sasuke barely makes contact with anyone else. Point is, I'm over him. For good. He never really cared about me, so it was pretty easy to get over him. I'm surprised I didn't get over him sooner."

Shikamaru didn't really care about Sasuke; he was more concerned about himself. To hell with being selfish, he wanted to know more about her. He didn't know where this strange urge to know more about her came from. Heck, this was Ino he was talking about. But he especially wanted to know why she slapped him.

"So, why did you slap me?" He mused aloud. Ino stopped short. He kept walking, but blinked, turning around, as he realized she was several feet behind him, her gaze affixed to the path they were walking on. He flinched, realized he really had just though aloud, and stood there, waiting. Finally, she looked up. Was that a tear Shikamaru thought he saw?

Before he could concentrate even further, to confirm this runaway thought, Ino began laughing out loud, pretending to wipe away tears of mirth, but what had really been tears for another reason.

"Are you seriously asking why I slapped you?" She managed to get out, between laughs.

Shikamaru gulped, and nodded his head. Ino just laughed even harder.

"And here I thought you were smarter than that… Do you really want to know why I slapped you?"

By now, it was approaching evening. Shikamaru stared at the cloud tinged by pastel colours, then turned back to look at Ino, and nodded again. He was strangely silent, but then again, Shikamaru had never been very talkative.

"Well, I'm hungry. And I want something to eat. Take me to get some ramen at Ichiraku, because I doubt that you can't afford it, so don't pull some lame-ass excuse saying I have no money. If you take me, I just might consider telling you. If not… Well…"

Ino gave him one of those looks Shikamaru knew well. It simply meant, 'Or else.' And Shikamaru had never been one to risk one of those 'or else's'. He nodded for a third time, and accompanied her to the ramen stall.

-x-

Shortly after Ino and Shikamaru had sat down and had their orders taken and served, Ino spoke up. It was unusual for her to be quiet, but since she had practically ordered Shikamaru to take her out for a meal, she had been silent. "Well…" was all she said, before gathering some ramen noodles between her chopsticks, blowing on them because they happened to be piping hot, and depositing in their mouth, chewing slowly before swallowing.

"What would you do, if you'd been enjoying a sad moment alone, ruminating, when someone barged in, practically ordering you to tell them why you were sad, and that you pretty well weren't allowed to be? Sad, I mean."

Shikamaru was silent, but really, it wasn't as if he hadn't been for a long while now. Finally, he opened his mouth and said, "I think I'd be mad at them."

"Do you understand why I slapped you now?" She said, in a tone of voice she'd never used on Shikamaru. It almost sounded like she was explaining a concept to someone younger and with less intelligence than them.

"Are you trying to say that that's how you felt when I came in to see if you were okay? Because it seemed like you just slapped me." Shikamaru said half-heartedly. He just didn't know whether to get mad at her, look sad, or be happy she's actually telling him.

"I think I am." She said. And that was all there was to it.

"You could've just told me…" Shikamaru mumbled, trailing off. They continued to eat in silence, the only sound being chopsticks clinking against the bowls, and the consistent chewing and swallowing. Though to an outsider, it might have seemed like Ino hadn't heard Shikamaru, she had. Loud and clear. And they both knew it. But that was Ino. She never really had stopped to explain herself.

When Ino finished, she waited for Shikamaru to as well, before standing up and leaving. Shikamaru rummaged around in his pocket, before finding enough money to pay. He overpaid by a couple hundred yen, but left it as a tip, because they'd been courteous enough to leave them alone while they ate.

Shikamaru offered to walk Ino home, and she accepted. They stayed quiet as they walked home. Shikamaru was trying to think of what Ino was thinking, but really he could only wonder what she was thinking about. While Ino, she knew what she was thinking. She was getting ready to act on impulse once again. Ino always thought her impulses through, they were never half-thought out. Though sometimes unexpected consequences happened that she never foresaw, they were still thought through pretty well.

When they reached the door, Ino hesitated before pulling Shikamaru back by the arm, or by the shoulder, to this day she still couldn't remember. The sun had set while the two had been eating in Ichiraku and it was dark out, stars just beginning to come out.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, and before Shikamaru could react, she kissed him, fully on the lips. It was pure and sweet, something you would never expect for Ino, and yet there was a force to it that was purely Ino. There was just enough force to leave a lasting impression on Shikamaru, enough to make sure he never forgot.

It was a first kiss, for the two of them, and as Ino pulled away, slipping inside her home, Shikamaru wished he had returned that kiss. But that didn't mean he would never forget the kiss. It would be almost impossible. Just like it was impossible to forget Ino.

Ino did what she did, because she was certain of how she felt. And the impression she left that day would one day lead Shikamaru to feeling the same.