-three-
Teach me heartache, stop this burning...

"We fight all out," Tenten explained. The two teams of two were standing, facing each other in the center of a clearing they had picked. It was slightly bigger than the one that Ino and Shikamaru had been in.

"Good; so do we," Ino said, nodding. No we don't. She slid Shikamaru a discreet glance. As usual, his face was indifferent to everything that was going on. He was wearing his signature look of boredom and then he sighed. Ino's eyes rolled to look at the blue, blue sky above. What have I gotten myself into?

"Okay then," Tenten said resolutely, shifting her feet a little. The scraping sound was loud in the silence. "Let's begin."

Immediately, all four ninjas withdrew into the cover of the trees on the edge of the oval shaped clearing.

"Okay, Shikamaru. What's the plan?" Ino hissed to her teammate.

"Huh? What?" was his intelligent response. She felt like hitting her head against something solid again, like she did at the flower shop. Why was it that Shikamaru could invoke this kind of feeling in her? Did that say something about his character, perhaps?

"A plan, Shikamaru. We need a plan."

Shikamaru's face crumpled into a concentrated frown. "I'm thinking, I'm thinking."

"Well, think faster," Ino whispered emphatically, peering through the leaves of the tree she was perched in. And while she hid in the tree branches, she thought through the situation herself.

So one is great at long range attacks and one can basically see through everything you are about to pull. Great. Fabulous. My best bet would be to go after Tenten (big surprise there) and get her with my mind transfer. Then I could use her to attack Neji. Neji would never dare to attack her body, even though I'm controlling it.

So, now the problem is…how to get her to stand still…

No time to worry about that now. Ino's heart rate went up dramatically as she saw hundreds of kunai heading right toward them from the other side of the clearing. Damn Neji and his byakugan, she cursed as she immediately slid down the tree's trunk and stuck herself to the side of it. She could feel the tree shake as kunai hit it hard on the other side. Leaves dropped all around her as the kunai flew through the canopy. Shikamaru slid down beside her, brows furrowed deeply.

"I don't know, Ino. They're pretty good…"

"And that means…?"

Shikamaru sighed and leaned his head back against the trunk of his tree. "We're probably gonna lose this thing. And bad."

"Great."

Suddenly, a yell sounded from awfully close by. Ino flinched and caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Hey look, its Tenten. TENTEN?! Ino spun away from the tree trunk as Tenten came flying at her, a kunai sinking into the tree where Ino's head had been. Whew, that was close. Tenten didn't stop though. She pulled it out and charged Ino again. Ino decided the best thing in this case was to block and back up.

So she did. She reversed into the clearing, where she'd have more room to move and dodge. She was doing a good job at not getting stabbed too, until Neji appeared in the corner of her eye. Ino risked a glance backwards and found he was right behind her, waiting. And she was backing right into him.

So, they're trying to pick off the weak one first, eh? Ino thought grimly. I have to get out from between them…

She was saved the trouble when Tenten's attack came to an abrupt halt. Her eyes widened as she realized what had happened. Which was the same time when Ino realized what had happened. Thank you, Shikamaru, she thought, immediately running out from between Neji and Tenten. As she had expected, there was a dark black shadow stretched over the ground, running from Tenten's feet into the trees where Shikamaru was hiding.

Shikamaru turned Tenten to face Ino and Ino brought her chakra to her fingertips, starting with handsigns to her jutsu. All this took a couple of seconds. Then she started her mind transfer jutsu and at the same time, Shikamaru released Tenten, rushing forward to Ino's side. He got there just as Ino started to crumple to the floor and Tenten's body jerked with a start.

Shikamaru didn't hold Ino's limp body in his arms, like Neji thought he would. Shikamaru instead stepped around the body of his teammate and performed his shadow possession. Neji let him catch him, waiting for what he would do next.

Tenten, with Ino's spirit inside of her, reached into her leg pouch and took out a kunai. Spinning it once, she then chucked it at the immobilized Neji.

Shikamaru watched the kunai fly through the air, eyes narrowing as he concentrated…

Just before the kunai would pierce Neji's skin, Shikamaru released him from the shadow possession. He knew that if he had kept him in the jutsu, they both would have felt the stabbing pain of the kunai. Neji, to his credit, didn't panic. He whipped out a hand, as quick as lightning, and caught the kunai coming at him. The tip of the knife pricked his arm the tiniest bit.

Show off, Shikamaru thought, scowling. Then he turned around to scoop up Ino lying on the ground.

Tenten threw two more kunai at Neji. Neji was unfazed. He dodged one and caught the other; then fluidly threw the two kunai in hand at Shikamaru's back. Just as Ino had expected, he didn't dare attack Tenten's body, but as she turned to look at her teammate, he didn't seem to realize that there were two kunai baring down on his back.

Release! Ino's spirit sped toward her own body. If she could make it in time, she just might be able to get him out of the way. Behind her, Tenten's body slumped a little and Tenten, back in her right mind, groaned at her newfound headache.

Ino slipped into her own body and immediately grabbed hold of Shikamaru's shoulders. "What the…" Shikamaru started to say, but Ino didn't let him or her headache get in the way. She yanked him to the side and toward the ground, hoping they could duck underneath the kunai.

No. Such. Luck.

With their faces so close together, Ino could see the slight widening of Shikamaru's eyes as one of the two flying kunai scraped across his back, cutting through his clothes to the skin. His grip on her slackened, but Ino's grip on him tightened. "Shikamaru, are you okay?" she asked in a breathless whisper. He barely managed to nod.

"I'm…fine," he forced out in a strained voice. "Just a scratch."

"You guys okay?" Tenten called from where she stood, still massaging her temples with her fingers. This headache was killer.

Yeah, Ino thought. Just a scratch.

Not.

--

"This is definitely not just a scratch," Ino said as she dipped her index finger into a little container of healing ointment. The scratch on Shikamaru's back wasn't deep but it was a long diagonal stripe of livid red. The bleeding had stopped for the most part after a long time of sponging with water, but the injury still looked painful enough.

"You think I don't know?" Shikamaru said, wincing as the ointment was rubbed on his injury. "God, that stings."

"Sorry. Want me to blow on it?"

"What?"

The situation was already awkward enough. Even Shikamaru could see that. He was naked to the waist and lying on his stomach on a couch in Ino's living room, getting doctored by the girl he was currently living with.

And she had just offered to blow on his back.

Hmm…

Ino knew her face was bright red. There was nothing embarrassing about this moment…or so she convinced herself to believe. It was just…this moment was so…weird. And from an outside perspective, it was downright…wrong.

Kind of.

Ino let herself briefly imagine Sakura's reaction if she walked through the front door right now.

Not too pretty.

And she had just offered to blow on his back.

I am such a moron. "Blowing on it sometimes lessens the stinging."

"Oh. Um, okay then."

Ino rubbed her finger in the ointment again and then reached to rub it on the next segment of the gash. As she did, she leaned forward and blew gently on the area. She could feel his muscles, first tense in trying to handle the pain, start to relax as she blew. Ino smiled slightly, then leaned back to get some more ointment.

"You're going to use up this whole thing."

"Sorry," Shikamaru mumbled.

Ino smiled wider. "That's okay. I'm pretty sure my mom has a ton in the medicine cabinet. She's always afraid I'm going to come home one day a bleeding mess."

"It's a legitimate worry," Shikamaru commented flatly.

"Yeah, I guess." Ino straightened back up and dug her fingers into the very corners of the container. "Yep, this one's gone. Stay here while I get another one."

"Where can I possibly go?"

Ino smiled as she walked out of the room. "Hmm…good point." Then she rounded the corner and leaned against the wall.

Her hands were shaking. She closed her eyes and forced herself to take deep, controlled breaths. This was bad. This only happened when she really liked a guy. It had happened whenever she had had a prolonged conversation with Sasuke. At those moments, she could barely talk without choking on her own spit. But that was Sasuke. Everyone liked Sasuke. He was hot, mysterious, dark, and cool.

And Shikamaru? In comparison?

Uh…Shikamaru was smart. And…that was pretty much all he had going for him.

Ino forced herself to screw the cap of the ointment container back on and then pushed off of the wall. She walked slowly to the bathroom, thinking thoroughly.

Shikamaru had always just been a friend. A really close friend. He never was much of a conversationalist, but his presence was always comforting, even if he didn't say anything and wasn't aware of it. However, he had never been more than just a friend. For Ino, Sasuke was always the impossible love interest and Shikamaru was always the best friend. And that was that. Period.

Until now. When things were screwing up inside her brain.

Ino got to the bathroom. She threw the empty ointment container into the trash and then walked to the medicine cabinet. She opened it and found her guess about her mother to be correct. There was a whole shelf dedicated to the healing ointment. Ino dug one out, closed the cabinet door, and then started back toward the living room.

A place she suddenly was dreading and yearning to go.

Then there was what other people would say. Shikamaru was quiet, thoughtful, intelligent, and liked to be by himself. Ino was loud, rash, not as intelligent, and starved for company. They might say something like opposites attract.

But more likely than not, they would be saying, "Why the hell does she like him?"

Because nobody would see it coming. Nobody could see it coming. It would be about as expected as Sakura suddenly announcing her engagement to Naruto. It just wouldn't happen. The thought of the two of them together wasn't even an existing idea.

Then again, Ino had never liked her dependence on what other people said about her and her life and her thoughts and her desires and her love interests. She was always trying to not be controlled by the gossip and to just let her heart take her to where it willed.

And what better time to start than now?

How about…uh, never?

When Ino finally walked back into the living room, Shikamaru had moved. She stopped, surprised. Shikamaru was meeting her gaze steadily, sitting up right on the couch. "What took you so long?" he said indifferently, as if the question was just a mere pleasantry.

"Why are you sitting up? I haven't finished rubbing ointment on your whole cut yet."

"I felt like sitting up." Shikamaru's lips were starting to curve in a defiant smile.

Ino rolled her eyes. In her current confused state of mind, she wasn't in the mood for resistance. "Well, lay back down. It'll only take a second longer and then you can sit up as much as you like."

Shikamaru didn't move. "Really? Only a second?"

Ino sighed. "You know what I mean."

"Should I count?" Shikamaru asked, continuing his stupid joke. What a time to get a sense of humor, Ino thought grimly.

"Come on, Shikamaru. I'm really not in the mood to be confrontational."

"Okay, okay," Shikamaru said, slowly laying himself back on his stomach. Ino sat beside him again and started to rub the new ointment on his gash. The ointment was powerful stuff. On the parts that Ino had already applied it, the gash looked immensely better. Ino tried to block everything out of her mind, just concentrating on the ointment and the application of it. When she was done, she screwed the cap of the container back on and got up.

"All done. Told you it wouldn't take long."

"It was more than a second though," Shikamaru pointed out.

"I'm terribly sorry," Ino apologized sarcastically. "I hope I didn't waste too much of your precious time."

"You would have if there was anything to do around here." He sighed and his eyes moved to stare at the ceiling.

Ino bent down to grab the TV remote and then she threw it at his stomach. "You can watch television. I'll be in my room."

"I bet there's nothing on," Ino heard him say as she started to walk back to the bathroom to put the ointment away.

"How tragic," she called over her shoulder.

A/N: Updates are erratic, I know, but I'm doing the best I can. Right now I've hit huge writer's block on this story and another story I'm working on, but I'm addicted to writing my forcoming NejiTen story. -sigh- Hopefully I'll get over the blocks and start writing this story again.

Thank you to my rockin' reviewers. Hopefully you'll forgive me for being so bad at updating regularly. I have to take the SATs soon, so I'll be studying for that a lot soon.

Feedback's always welcome. Thanks for reading.

Until next time, then...