Finished on june 23. Not sure what made me write this, but i like it. r&r
"What the heck kinda food is this?" Choji inquired, gazing at the piece of pizza scrutinizingly. Team 10 had gathered together on one of their days off to hang out,and they had all brought lunch. Shikamaru had brought some riceballs, Choji had brought some chips, and Ino had brought something he had never even heard of. Unusual, as Choji was Konoha's current food expert.
Ino shrugged. "Deyna made it when she got hungry. Said she used to eat it all the time where she lived," Ino rolled onto her front and gazed at the offending piece of food. Deyna had taken to the cuisine of her new home rather quickly, but still had pangs for the foods she had eaten in Canada and China. This did occasionally include rabbit, foul and the odd squirrel, owing to her child hood as a wolf. These were few and far between, thank god, and were satisfied in the woods where no one could see her. At one point she had gotten such an over powering urge for pizza that she went out, bought the ingredients and used one of her Shen Gong Wu to find the recipe. She had made three pizzas, and eaten two of them herself. The last one had been given to the Yamanakas as her unnecessary weekly payment for them allowing her to live with them. Having nothing else to eat, Ino brought it to the training grounds for lunch. No one had touched it yet.
Choji shook his head. "Still, i don't trust it. What do you think Shikamaru?" He asked, handing the genius the pizza. If someone with an i.q over two hundred couldn't figure out what it was, no one could. Shikamaru gave an irritated sigh and rolled over, grumpy that his cloud watching had been disrupted. He just lookd at the piece of pizza in his friends out stretched hand. And then...
"Ramf!" Shikamaru darted his hand forward and crammed the pizza into his mouth, ripping a piece off savagely. He chewed it thoughtfully for a minute, ignoring the looks from his teammates, and swallowed it. They just stared at him for a moment before he handed Ino her pizza back. "I think it could have used a bit more oregano in the sauce, and that the rosemary was a nice touch," he replied, rolling onto his back again. "Be sure to tell Deyna that she shouldn't be shaky with the cheese, the more the better, and to ease up on the meat. Not all of us grew up eating moose you know." Ino and Choji looked at each other and back at Shikamaru, stunned. "And it's a type of Italian delicacy called "pizza". It's very popular in North America and Europe. Typically it's drenched in fat and oil, but this one seems very healthy." No one said anything.
A small smile crept onto Ino's face. "Nara Shikamaru, you son of a bitch." The grin continued to grow until it covered her face. "I had no idea the you even knew what the words "oregano" and "rosemary" meant." Her words were filled with a laugh.
Shikamaru started, his eyes widening marginaly. "And there aren't many people here who even know what pizza is, let alone where it comes from. Not to mention the chef worthy compliments," She was almost laughing now, fighting back the chuckles that threatened to over power her. He silently began to pray, words lining up the falling to their doom on his tongue, sounding just like the breath that propelled them.
"Ino," he interrupted, turning and facing her. "Are you trying to make a point?" He inquired boredly, forcing his voice to remain calm. Ino smirked, shrugging her shoulders.
"Eh, not really," and took a bite out of the pizza. Choji and Ino left soon after that, Choji to restock his chip supply, and Ino to work at the flower shop. As she turned to leave, Ino stopped down to Shikamaru's ear and whispered.
"Actually, it wasn't rosemary, baka, it was thyme," and without another word, turned and left. Shikamaru sighed and leaned back once more. As far as eating, lunch had been a fantastic failure, but as far as discovery, well, that was yet to be decided.