Perfect Present
It was a perfect day. He had the day off after his two week mission with nothing to do but sit back and watch the clouds as they passed.
"SHIKAMARU!" Shouted the shrill voice of one Yamanaka Ino. "Get up you lazy bum!"
Nara Shikamaru groaned. What could Ino want on his day off? Suddenly, there was a sharp blow to the young shadow user's ribs.
"Get up! You still have to get Sakura-chan a gift." Shikamaru blinked several times before what Ino had said registered in his mind.
'Right... Sakura-chan's birthday is today... I guess I should get her a gift... She did heal me after that mission... Troublesome...'
"Well, you should get on it because I've already gotten her gift. Well, Hinata-chan and I split for a gift. It's a lovely basket of soaps and sakura fragrances. I just wanted to remind you." With that, Ino disappeared in a puff of smoke. After a minute or so, Shikamaru lifted himself off the ground and began walking to the village market.
When he finally made it to the shops, he looked from window to window. Nothing seemed to be right for the pink-haired konoichi. He had never been good at getting people gifts. He had to shop at least 2 months in advance for his own mother, let alone for a girl his own age that he didn't know very well.
He continued his search until he had seen many items in nearly every shop in town. He knew it was fruitless and instead of wasting anymore time searching, he decided that Sakura would just have to accept an "IOU."
Of course, it is always at those random moments in life that you find what you are questing.
As Shikamaru passed through an alley to get home, he noticed a little shop he had never seen before along his usual route. Now, Shikamaru was never one to believe in fate or destiny but soemthing about the mysterious store lured him to go in. But that could have also been the nice shogi board displayed in the store's window.
As he walked in, a little bell chimed from on of the door. Almost instantly, a young lady showed up beside him, flitting about him anxiously.
"Why hello," she said in a strangely raspy voice. "What can I do for you today?"
"Eh? I'm just looking around," Shikamaru said, without looking at the woman.
"Ah, looking for a young lady friend, I see," she said mischieviously. However, the lazy, young man simply muttered "troublesome" as he walked through the small shop. It was like many shops with the little trinkets and such scattered about the room. As Shikamaru wandered closer to the shogi board in the window, a little twinkle caught his eye. It was an item right next to the shogi table. Shikamaru always knew the perfect gift when he saw it and this time was no exception. It was the perfect gift for Sakura-chan.
He walked carefully over to the item in question, noting that it was in fairly good shape and looked like it even worked too.
"That would be a very lovely item for your lady friend," said the woman from over Shikamaru's shoulder. He looked it over for another moment before speaking.
"Can you gift wrap it?" The woman nodded with glee, grabbing the object from his hands and rushing to the back. In a minute, she brought out the gift, wrapped in beautiful light blue paper with sakura petals.
"Something told me this would be the perfect wrapping paper for your lady friend," the woman said with a smile on her face.
"How much is it," Shikamaru asked. The young woman smiled at him... She was obviously pleased...
"Only 19,000 yen," she said while attempting to sound innocent. Shikamaru sighed.
'What a steep price... I don't really have time to haggle though. Not like I'm spending most of my money anyway... So just this once,' Shikamaru thought to himself as he took out his wallet. He threw the correct change on the counter and walked as fast as he could out of the store, leaving the young woman smiling at her sale.
Finally, Shikamaru made it back to his small appartment with just enough time to get ready for the party that was being held at a local resturant. He quickly showered, got into his regular chunnin outfit and walked off to the party, gift in hand.
When he finally made it, being 20 minutes late, Ino glared at him like there was no tomorrow. Shikamaru placed his gift on the table and moved away from Ino as fast as possible.
He caught the eye of his best friend, Akimachi Choji, and slowly but surely made his way over to the young man. Choji laughed while still conversing with a mystery person, knowing that Shikamaru was in deep trouble with Ino. When Shikamaru finally made it close to his friend, he noticed that it was the birthday girl who had been conversing with him.
"Hey Shikamaru," Sakura said with a smile on her face. It was obvious that the kunoichi was happy that all of her friends were gathered for her birthday. She was not bothered at all by the fact that he was late. For some reason, this bothered him slightly. Did she not care that he had not been around for 20 minutes? Of course, Shikamaru's train of thought broke when Sakura began speaking again. "I'm glad you could make it. I wanted to ask you something."
Shikamaru gulped as Sakura grabbed his hand, taking him out the door and to a bench close by the resturant the party was in. She looked shyly over at the shadow user, as if she wanted to tell him something but could not say it out of embarrassment. For some reason, Shikamaru's mind always seemed to be clouded when Sakura was around anymore. He just couldn't really keep his thoughts on anything other than her since a mission they had been together on a month ago.
"Well, what is it, Sakura-chan?" Shikamaru asked, almost fearful of what she was going to say.
"I was just wondering if you'd like to go out sometime," Sakura said, a bright smile on her face. Shikamaru's jaw dropped at the question. He had always thought she had lost some of her boldness after the fiasco of attempts at wooing Sasuke but it seemed as though she was as bold as ever. "So, what do you say, Shikamaru-kun?"
It was then that he noticed that she was becoming a little bit more shy, as though afraid of what his answer would be.
"I... " He paused. "I would love to go out with you." He smiled at the pink-haired kunoichi, who beamed back at him with confidence. "Though I have to admit, it's a little embarassing that you had to ask me out and I couldn't pluck up the courage to do the same..." Sakura laughed.
"Actually... I probably wouldn't have asked either until Ino-pig told me that she thought you liked me. Of course, she also said you'd probably be too lazy to bother to ask me out, so I figured I had to take some intiative." Shikamaru scratched the back of his head, even more embarassed than before, his face becoming bright red.
In US dollars, that is roughly about $160.