Something Like That . . .

Part XI

Scene Prep

"I don't like you." Temari said suddenly.

Shikamaru faintly smiled and raised an eyebrow at her. He decided to expel not even the small amount of energy necessary to say "whatever" and instead went back to what he was doing; staring at the ceiling as he waited for the next scene to start.

"You hear me?" Temari demanded. "I said I don't like you. We're just friends!"

"Okay." Shikamaru shrugged.

"So tell your mom I wasn't going to kiss you!" The older girl demanded.

Shikamaru didn't bother to respond with words, he rolled over to his side and looked at the big red curtains.

"Shikamaru! Are you listening to me?"

Shikamaru sighed, "You're such a bother, I'm not like my father, I'm not going to jump for some woman's request. This play is almost done, so go have your fun, and leave me to think of a way out of this mess."

"Did you just rhyme at me?" Temari demanded.

"No way, that'd be troublesome." Shikamaru scoffed.

"You did, didn't you?"

"Scene's starting." Shikamaru said, getting up and trying to get away.

"No it isn't!" Temari cried, grabbing his arm and pulling him back.

They banged heads again. At least they didn't kiss.

Temari rubbed her head, "You're such a jerk." She groaned.

"Me? What did I do?" Shikamaru scoffed.

Not Far Off

"They really are cute together." Yoshino said. "He's more motivated than usual."

Shikaku supposed only a mother would notice what must be an incredibly subtle change in their son's zeal. But as he watched his son flirting with the Suna kunoichi he did notice Shikamaru seemed to be smiling more often, and this caused his father to smile faintly himself, "Sort of reminds me of us when we were younger."

"We weren't quite that young, and it's different when the man is a year or two older than the woman, if the woman is the older one it is just creepy." His wife said.

Shikaku flinched when his son's forehead came into contact with Temari's, "Well they're still young . . . we'll see what happens if they survive all this head banging, let alone survive the hard life of the ninja."

Yoshino scoffed, "Are you kidding? If she can light a fire under his ass and get him motivated I'll start planning the wedding today!"

"You were just yelling at him about not kissing girls until he's sixteen . . ." Shikaku said.

"It'd be different if they were married." His wife said simply.

"But he's fourteen . . ." Shikaku pointed out.

"Don't you play your mind games with me!" Yoshino cried.

"Yes dear . . ." Shikaku sighed.

Act IX (The Pub)

Shikamaru wasn't really sure what he was doing for this scene, he'd spent too much time avoiding Ino and trying to think of a way out to actually see her about what the heck she had in mind.

Announcing loudly, as any narrator would, she decreed what was going on loudly in a singsong voice, "Ramon, heart broken at the loss of his Julia now tries desperately to think of a plan! He resorts to going to a pub to drink away his sorrows, and ask his close friends for support."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and took a look around the 'pub'. Since most of the other actors had been 'killed' he was not surprised to see that most of the characters were played by Hinata, but the two . . . men standing next to him threw him off just a bit.

"What the heck?" He demanded. "These are my closest friends?"

Black Ant just nodded. Crow spun its head on its shoulders, quite possibly for comic effect. Well Shikamaru knew they were out of actors but still . . . these things creeped him out.

"Okay . . . prithee my good man, have you any plan, that might rescue my fair Julia?"

The puppets just sort of stared at him. His eye twitched. "Come now I say, for surely I'll pay, if I can get help from the two o'ya."

Again silence, he faintly heard Ino shouting "whaddya mean they don't talk? You had the crow thingy talk during the Chunin exams!"

"Yeah but that was a lot of trouble, " Kankuro said from far off.

"Ach! Fine, get down there and go with plan B!"

Shikamaru scoffed. Why was it that Kankuro knew plan B and he didn't? What a drag.

Suddenly Kankuro and Gaara walked into the pub from just off stage, Neji and Kiba were with them dressed as masked Anbu, Shikamaru supposed there was a limit to how many Hinata clones could inhabit the stage.

"A cold one barkeep, for we lost little sheep, who come all the way form Fantasy."

"Ach a cool pint for me, nay make it three, and point meself towards a pretty lassie!" Neji said, everyone stared at him. "I . . . I wanted to try actual acting." He said.

Ino narrated for his benefit, "Ramon now has a chance, for he sees with a glance, the brothers of his love who was taken. They came to wage war, but nobody opened the door, and their confidence is rather shaken."

Shikamaru shrugged, "I have half a mind, to see if I'll find, help from her brothers over yonder. But if they see me today, their first thought might be to slay, so how do I ask them, I wonder."

Kankuro answered the question, he came over and took a stool next to Shikamaru, Gaara came over and knocked Kankuro's puppets aside so that he could take the seat on the other side. Neji and Kiba were suddenly standing behind him, blocking any chance of escape.

"Well well, we were turned away at the gate, but it would seem that now fate, has decided to give us some fun!" Kankuro said.

"The slime that married our sister, with his lies did he twist her, yes this lazy bum is the one." Gaara agreed.

"Well now my friend, aren't we brothers in the end? Now that I've married your sister so dear?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well I guess that is true, so we wont kill you, but we've still got to beat you to a pulp I do fear." Kankuro said.

Shikamaru smirked, "Well wait now for I've a plan, to help you and your clan, just help me save your dear sibling."

"Make it good Ramon, or we'll rip out every bone, and we don't want to hear any quibbling."

Shikamaru nodded, "I'll open the gate when the hour is late, you'll cause a diversion and then, I'll save the fair maid, and you'll all be well paid, just sign your names here with this pen." Shikamaru said, producing a contract.

"Paid, what a joke! My funny bone's broke, what an amusing little Myth Shinobi!" Kankuro laughed, but Gaara held up a hand to silence him.

"I can't believe my ears, in all of my years, I never thought we would agree." Gaara said to Shikamaru, "But in the end, I'll call you a friend, if you're willing to offer this pact. Julia means so much more, than our little war, so we'll help each other and that is a fact."

Shikamaru nodded, "Then at midnight my brothers, and bring many others, and we'll rescue the beautiful maid!"

"Yeah well I only pray, we can hold the enemy at bay, and how much did you say we'd get paid?" Kiba asked, holding his hand out.

More To Come . . .

Author's Automated Announcement: I love the fact that so many people are enjoying this story. It makes it worth the time and effort. Yeah I know other words rhyme with Wife, I just didn't edit that last chapter before posting it so you'll probably notice it has more typos than most of the others. This'll be corrected eventually.

I'm surprised Shikamaru's parents are not disliked yet, I had such dread about the last chapter, this one too, but then this may be because both deviate from my original script. I am shocked and impressed by the rhyming talent of Shikamaru's Butterfly. Shikamaru's mother is probably out of character, I meant for her to be somewhat scary, praising or coddling her son one second then suddenly screaming at him but I don't think she spent enough time switching from one personality to the other to really come off as crazy, which is what I was shooting for.

I'm surprised Shikamaru's parents are not disliked yet, I had such dread about the last chapter, this one too, but then this may be because both deviate from my original script. I am shocked and by the rhyming talent of Shikamaru's Butterfly. Shikamaru's mother is probably out of character, I meant for her to be somewhat scary, praising or coddling her son one second then suddenly screaming at him but I don't think she spent enough time switching from one personality to the other to really come off as crazy, which is what I was shooting for.

Asuma is in the story actually, or at least he is supposed to be in the final chapter along with Baki and a few other adults. I may move their scene to an earlier chapter if I keep continuing this story though, since it's a good scene and I don't want to forget it. Incidentally I let Neji and Kiba have new roles because the story is getting extended.

As for my Darth Grimm crack, a certain reviewer (my friend Sun-Tzu) mentioned around chapter 9 that ShikaTema was the dark side of being a Shikamaru fan, so I pulled a star wars reference out of my hat. I am Darth Grimm, fully immersed in darkness and quite happy to be so. I will never write a ShikaIno story, even a love triangle would be pushing it for me.

Not that I have anything against Ino, she's actually one of my favorite characters . . . actually the shorter list might be the Naruto characters I do not like.