Well here's the next chapter the day before Christmas. Think of it as my present to all of you haha. Thank you so much to everyone who has left comments, it makes me want to do even better on this for you guys. Yea I know it took me a long time to write this but since it's the holidays I really wanted to write a oneshot for Shikamaru and Ino which is 'Mistletoe and Snowballs' plus this chapter was REALLY hard, I have no idea why but I struggled in writing this one so I hope it came out okay.

Songs going through my head for this chapter;

'Can't Get My Head Around You' - The Offspring (Neither of them know what to think of the other in this chapter)

'Everything You Want' -Vertical Horizon (Though he's really smart, Shikamaru can be really oblivious sometimes.)

Enjoy!

"Sh – Shikamaru?" Ino looked unbelievingly into the Nara's dark brown eyes that were held inches above her. He was so close that she could feel his soft breath hitting her face.

"Ino. I'm so sorry." He whispered. "I was so stupid not to see it." Ino looked at his face that represented that of a sad puppy.

"See what?" She asked.

"You. Ino… I love you." A smile stretched across her face as Shikamaru lowered his head to close the gap between them, his lips gently brushing hers, unsure of his own action. Letting him know that it was okay, Ino crushed her lips against his while her arms slinked around the Nara's thick neck. Her hands passing over the muscles of his broad shoulders making him tense at her touch.

Ino pulled Shikamaru's body closer so that they were pressed tightly together. She could feel an elbow resting on each side of her so that he wouldn't crush her as he took the invitation to enter her mouth. It felt so right to have the sweet taste his tongue rub against the roof of her mouth before tracing the inside of her bottom lip.

The action sent a tingle throughout her body, making her shiver in satisfaction. Shikamaru moved one of his arms underneath her and arched her back even more into him while she twirled some of his hair in one of her fingers.

He moved his kisses to her neck, touching her skin gently and slowly, making sure he got every spot of her. Ino let out a moan as she pressed their bodies together even tighter. She ran one of her legs up along the side of his, her foot brushing the skin above his ankles. She kept her foot against the warmth of his skin, lifting some of the fabric of his pants while toying with him. Shikamaru smiled against her skin.

"I think you want those to go the opposite way." He whispered, coming back up to taste her lips.

Her hands moved to the button of his pants, slipping a finger in the side to play with the straps before unbuttoning them. Then, slowly, she began to slip them down while he continued on the side of her face.

"Shikamaru –"

Ino let out a loud groan when her eyes fluttered open to see not the dark eyes she was hoping for, but the dull hospital ceiling above her. Glancing to the sides of her hospital bed she failed to see the Nara she wanted. Just her friend Sakura with her back turned, working on something. Knew it was too good to be true. She thought, letting out a sigh.

'Ow' Ino thought to herself when she tried to sit up only to fall back against the mattress. Without lifting herself up again, she removed the sheets and looked down the length of her body. She was in a hospital bed, her body wearing one those ugly gowns they give out. The leg that Temari hit was bandaged with some dried blood that seeped through. Lifting up her hospital gown to see her midsection she saw no wrappings, instead it was filled with nasty bruises that were not purple but yellow and green. Great.

Ino noticed her hand had a needle stuck into it and followed the tube up to a clear bag that hung by her bed. I like pain killers. She thought as she let her head relax back on the pillow. There was a clang off to the side. When Ino turned her head she saw Sakura with her back turned, working on something unseen. When the pink girl turned around there was a needle for a shot in her hands. Ino felt a bit panicked where as a wide grin formed on Sakura's face.

"Hey! There's my sleeping schemer!" Sakura happily stated. Ino didn't say anything right away, just kept looking at the needle.

"Please tell me that is not going into me." Ino responded, still not taking her eyes away.

"It's to help your insides. You took quit a beating." Sakura walked over and quickly gave Ino the shot, sinking the needle deep into her upper arm.

"I hate shots." The blonde said, looking the other way.

"Well that was your last one. By the way, good job yesterday, you caused quit a riot." Sakura walked away to put the materials back. Ino glanced in her friend's direction.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Tsunade's not pleased and gave Temari two days to finish her business here and leave, so that means we won't be seeing her for a while. Also Shikamaru is pissed at her. I don't think that relationship is going to continue. He hasn't spoken to Temari or anything. Actually, he's been hanging around the hospital since he brought you here yesterday evening. I'm sorry but I had to send him home after one in the morning, it's the rules and I had already let him stay longer than I should have. But he was so upset I'm sure he'll be here any minute. He may even be downstairs right now. Oh and Kiba wanted me to give you a high five from him." Sakura finished, lifting her hand so that Ino could slap it.

Ino's hand rested back on the bed as she let a small smile grow on her lips.

"I knew I didn't get hurt for nothing." She said softly, letting her eyes slowly shut. "How much longer am I here for?"

"Soon, just a few more things and you will be good to go. Shikamaru's coming to take you home." Sakura spoke as she started to unwrap Ino's leg to put on clean cloth. Ino looked at her wide eyes. "Wow, she really got you good here." Sakura said when she reached Ino's skin to see the deep gash from Temari.

"Shikamaru's taking me home?"

"Yea. He's really upset about what happened and said he'll take you home because like it or not, you're going to need some assistance. Unless you want to limp the whole way on this leg and I know you'd rather go through the pain instead of crutches."

The door to Ino's room opened, both girls eyes darted to see who was entering. It was Shikamaru.

"Good to see you're awake." He said, going to stand by Ino's side, hands in his pocket. Ino sat there, staring at him, always put into a state of awe when he walks into the room. "Feeling okay?"

"I've been better." Ino said, looking at the needle in her arm as Sakura removed it.

"There all done. I'm going to go take care of a few things and then you're good to go." Sakura said when she was done. Then she left the room, leaving Ino and Shikamaru alone. They both remained silent for a few moments, unsure of what to say to the other. Ino played with the edge of her blanket, avoiding his eyes that rested on her deep in thought, lost in that brilliant mind.

"Surviving the hospital?" He asked as he lowered himself to sit on the side of her bed, his hands resting on the edge. She could feel the part of his body that rested against her through the thin sheets. Heat rushed to her lips as she remembered the dream that she had not five minutes ago.

"Uh, yea." She answered, trying to get her face back to its normal color. "Actually I just woke up a few minutes ago." His eyes widened at the information.

"You were asleep that long?"

"Yea. It's not too bad. I mean, I did come in the evening and its morning now."

"But still. You came here at five last night and it's actually almost noon." He rubbed his hand on his chin for a second, staring at the floor.

"I needed the rest." Dropping his hand he looked at her, staring into her sapphire blues with his dark brown eyes. Ino could feel the heat rush back to her lips as he continued to stare at her. Then he started laughing.

His laughter was loud and seemed to bounce off the walls. Ino grew confused at the sudden change in the atmosphere. Her face turned into a frown, wondering what his problem was.

"What? Is there something on my face?" She asked, touching her face with the tip of her fingers. The question made him laugh even harder.

"Typical, troublesome Ino. Always look at the best of the worse." He said without looking at her as his laughter calmed down. Ino looked at him as if he did drugs, she didn't think it was that funny and wasn't sure what to say. So she hit him.

She didn't hit him hard. It was just a nudge on the shoulder for him laughing at her. Though it didn't hurt, he grabbed his arm and smiled at her.

"What? You think you can beat me up just because you're in the hospital bed?" He asked.

"Psh, I can beat you up any day." She said.

"You want to try that?" A smile formed in the corner of his lips.

"I'm not scared at you." Shikamaru leaned closer to her, his face just inches away, just like her dream. Amusement was written all over his face as the smile continued.

"I'll remember that." Shikamaru's voice was low and level as he looked her in the eye. They remained there for a few seconds, his eyes remaining on hers. Ino was unsure of what to do when the door opened again and Sakura stepped in.

"Alright Ino, you're all set to go." Her friend said. Shikamaru quickly sat back up strait but Sakura had already seen how close they were and smiled to Ino. "Stay safe. I'll check on you tomorrow." Sakura threw in before leaving again, off to see other patients.

"Ready to go then?" Shikamaru asked, turning back to Ino who nodded. She threw back the covers before standing up; keeping all of her weight on her good leg. Reaching to the small table that was by the bed she picked up her clothes that were set down neatly.

It didn't dawn on Shikamaru that she needed to change until she looked at him kind of funny, making his cheeks turn scarlet.

"Um – right. I step outside." He said while rubbing a hand against the back of his head in embarrassment. Turning on his heels he started for the door.

"You don't have to leave." Ino's voice stopped him. "You can just turn around."

Shikamaru looked at her a second too long, processing what she had just said. Embarrassed by what she suggested, Ino turned her gaze to the clothes she played with in her hands to avoid his look of confusion. Honestly she wasn't sure herself on why she had told him he could stay.

With a shrug of the shoulders he turned around, trying to keep a smile from creeping onto his face. Surprisingly he didn't feel awkward at all when the sound of Ino putting on her clothes reached his ears. That was till he felt his eyes start to move on their own for a peek over his shoulder. But before anything could be seen he regained control and snapped them to stare forward at the door. Ashamed and puzzled with himself on why he almost did that, especially to his own teammate. He started to get so lost in his own mind on that one motion next to the way he has been behaving around his friend in general lately that his body flinched when Ino rested her hand on his shoulder since he would react to her saying his name several times to let him know that she was done.

"Hey, Nara, you home?" She asked, her sky blue eyes looking worriedly into his. Even though they have made eye contact many times he never really noticed how much they were the color of the sky on a clear day. He hadn't been cloud watching for a while and was starting to miss the time where he would rest in peace. The thought of relaxing made him let out a yawn. "You gonna make it?"

"Yea, just tired. Are you ready to go?" He asked. Ino nodded and they left the room with him stopping by the door, putting a hand out to motion for Ino to go first who smiled at him before walking by to leave the hospital room behind.

It was warm in Konoha as they slowly made their way to Ino's house. She was limping a little bit from her wounded leg but it wasn't bad. Just enough to make them have to slow down their pace which Shikamaru didn't mind, he enjoyed just trudging along.

"Ino, I'm really sorry about all this." Shikamaru suddenly changed their conversation after eyeing her for a few seconds. Her lip still cut and knowing the bruises that must be all over her body, covered by her clothes.

Ino turned her face to look at him. Wondering why he had said that. She had forgotten all about the brawl with Temari for a little bit while walking with him.

"Don't be. It was not your fault. We just fought." She said, turning her face towards the ground. She thought that was why he had been more spacey than normal, there must be a big dilemma going on in his head of how to handle the whole situation.

"I don't know why you two fought," Yea right Ino thought while he spoke, "but somehow I feel responsible for Temari continuing after you were down." His voice lowered towards the end, his eyes not leaving the ground. "She shouldn't have done that."

"Have you talked to her since?" Ino asked without thinking, knowing what she wanted to hear but at the same time hoping she wouldn't hear it.

"No. I broke up with her." Ino's eyes widened with some amazement that she was actually hearing what she wanted to happen so bad. But at the same time her heart felt to drop while looking at Shikamaru's face. He was still looking at the ground, mouth pulled down at the corners into a frown. Home wrecker she felt great about herself. She finally got their relationship to an end, but now felt bad to see him like this.

"I'm sorry." She said, trying sooth him. Get him back into the mood he was a moment ago. She honestly was sorry, it was mostly her fault, but at the same time there was a small party going on in her head.

"No. It wasn't going to work anyways." Shikamaru said, looking up again. "We are two completely different people that live hundreds of miles away from each other. They say that opposites attract, but in that case we were too opposite from each other that the only common interest was our jobs and responsibilities. We could understand the others stress." Unsure of how to respond, Ino remained quit. Letting them walk some in silence. That was when they passed the edge of the trail into the forest to where they would go train. Ino stopped.

"I'm not ready to go home yet." Ino said, looking down the path that disappeared into the trees. Shikamaru followed her gaze.

"Then what do you want to do?" Shikamaru asked, stepping up next to her. Ino looked up at the sky, the sun was close to the west and soon it would start descending down past the horizon.

"We can go to the opening where we train next to the river. The sky is clear so there should be plenty of stars out tonight." Shikamaru looked up too, she was right there were no clouds in the sky. He preferred to look at the clouds, but maybe stargazing wouldn't be too bad. He looked back down at Ino, her eyes still looking longingly down the trail. She was hurt, but it didn't seem to bug her, she wanted to limp the long path to the spot she mentioned. However, Shikamaru knew he needed to be responsible or else Ino would do whatever she wanted, no matter how bad she hurt. It was who she was, an aspect he liked.

"Sure. But on one condition." He started. "I'm going to need to carry you. There's no way you're walking all the way there in the shape you're in." He watched her turn her head towards him, a funny look on her face from whatever thought was going through her head.

"Okay?" She said, unsure of how to act. Excited that he asked yet feeling shy all of a sudden.

"Piggy back? We'll move faster." He laughed by her behavior and facial expression. Ino nodded before he turned his back towards her. Ino put her arms around his neck when he took them and pulled her body up so that she could wrap her legs around his torso. Then Shikamaru placed his hands behind him dangerously low on Ino's back to hold her. "Ready?" He asked.

"Yep."

"Then let's go." Shikamaru laughed, enjoying himself before setting off down the path with Ino resting on his back.

How's that chapter? Hehe I already started the next one and it makes me happy.

Please review! I like to know if my work is appriciated with all the time I put into it when I should be doing other stuff.

Oh, and if you think Temari's gone, you are mistaken. Just because she has to leave doesn't mean she's out of the story.