Dreams Accomplished

By: JaliceLove

Chapter 4 – Lunch

It was an unusual day at the Nara Household. Mr. and Mrs. Nara were looking oddly at their son who was currently at the kitchen.

Nara Shikamaru wearing an apron and had his hands working with rice was covered with bits of food all over his face. He was concentrated on his masterpiece. Food masterpiece.

"Shikamaru dear, would you like some help?"

"Eh just let him be."

The younger Nara grunted and said, "No it's okay." Then mumbled his trademark phrase. However he still kept working. Taking another scoop of rice, he started making another rice ball.

"He looks like a mess!" his mother cried.

"Let him be." His father said exasperated yet amused by his son who was… cooking.

After a few more minutes—more like another hour – Shikamaru Nara finished making two bentos—filled with rice balls, some sushi , tempura etc. He sighed and quickly made sure he didn't miss anything. Opening the fridge, he checked to see if there was some thing to drink. While muttering to himself about the mess on his face, he noticed that there wasn't any apple juice in the fridge. "Great." He mumbled.

Closing the fridge, he sighed and started fixing the mess he created. Once again his parents were surprised and… amused by their son's expression.

"Can you believe he's cleaning?"

"No."

Shikamaru went out of the kitchen satisfied and ran upstairs to finish tidying himself.

"He just… ran." His dad said.

"I think I could die happy now." His mom added.

After running to the store to quickly buy some juice, he went straight to Ino's house with the two bentos and juice in a basket. People who knew him gave him amused looks upon seeing him. It seemed like today was not a normal lazy day for Nara Shikamaru as he walked up to the Yamanaka's door and knocked.

The door opened revealing Ino's mother.

"Hey Shikamaru. What are you doing here?" she kindly asked.

He shuffled his feet as he answered her politely, "Is Ino here?"

The mom smiled at him and told him to come in while she gets her daughter upstairs. A couple of minutes later Ino Yamanaka ran downstairs with her hair flowing gently behind her. "Shika!"

"Oi. Ino. Having lunch with me remembers?" he reminded her.

She raised her eyebrow, "You remembered?"

"Che. Of course I did." He said.

She laughed, "Alright. Let's go. Ichirak---…. Is that.. A basket Shika?" she said tilting her head to the side.

A pink tinge appeared on the young man's cheeks.

"Troublesome…."

"Shikaaa! Is that for us? So we're not eating… Did you MAKE THAT?" she said excitedly. She ran up to him and grabbed his arm pulling him to the door.

"MOM! Shika and I are going out now!"

She yanked Shikamaru out of the door laughing.

"Shika did you really make all of this?" she said finally hungrily looking at the food.

He mumbled.

"Shika?"

"Yeah I did." He said sighing. "And it was quite annoying too. Especially having your parents stare at you like someone they don't know."

Ino bursted out in laughter.

"You have to admit, it's not everyday that the Laziest Shinobi in all of Konoha goes to the kitchen to make Lunch." She said still laughing.

"Yeah Yeah. Eat will you?" he said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly with a red tinge on his cheeks again.

"Of course Shika." She said, flashing him a grateful Smile. "Thanks. "

The two of them were currently on Shikamaru's favorite cloud watching spot however instead of Shikamaru cloud watching or sleeping, they were eating lunch together. Lunch made by Shikamaru of course.

"Wooow Shikaa." Ino exclaimed, "It's good!" she said with a big smile on her face.

Shikamaru kept eating not knowing what to say. The troublesome red thing is on his face again. "Why can't that thing go away?" He mumbled to himself.

"Shika?" she said breaking his thoughts. "I said the food is reeeeeeeallyy good."

"Uh, thanks Ino." He said not knowing what to say still.

She smiled. "Who ever thought you'd know how to cook."

"Yeah Yeah." He said eating again. It was good, even he himself was surprised.

Ino contently lay on the blanket that Shikamaru brought them sighing as she stared above at the clouds peacefully. "It's times like these where I could see why you like the clouds so much."

A comfortable silence filled the air as Shikamaru finished his food and Ino watched the peaceful clouds up above.

"Shikamaru?" she said knowing she won't get an answer, "You know what I want to do before I die?"

He stopped eating and looked at her. Not this topic.

With her eyes closed and a smile gracing her features she kept going, "There's a lot actually."

He swallowed. "Yeah?"

She nodded, "yeah. Like for instance. I was wondering if I should cut my hair back to its shorter length you know. I figured I should die the way I was born."

Willing the troublesome tears to go away he let her continue and added a comment, "You look better either way…"

She laughed, still with her eyes shielded from the rest of the world. "Aww Thanks Shika. Hm… I also wanted to be able to bake a cake one day. For the one I'll spend the rest of my life with." She sighs dreamily, "Then again I also wanted to go get married, date, and fall in love. Not in that order of course. I'd date first then fall in love then get married." Laughing she continued, "Then I wanted to have children. Troublesome children you'd probably say. But I'd still want children."

Shikamaru's heart wrenched in pain upon hearing her plans, the plans that would be so hard to do in her condition.

What is her condition? He wondered.

"Shika… " She said softly. "Why me?"

Quickly turning his head in her direction he saw clearly the glimmering tears that streamed down her pale porcelain face. "Ino…"

"Why does it have to be me?.. What have I done wrong?" she said choking in her tears. Bringing up her hand, she quickly wiped her tears away.

Shikamaru gently pulled her to him awkwardly. "Ino… didn't you say you didn't want to talk about this?"

Hiccupping she tried to smile, "Yeah… I guess it won't do any good right?"

He didn't answer. He was trying to keep his questions under control. Asking questions to her in this vulnerable state. Who knows what she'd do…

Letting her calm down he patted her back awkwardly. "Let's just enjoy the day yeah?" he offered weakly.

Laughing gently she nodded. "Thanks Shika."

She looked up at him smiling through her watered eyes. "Hm… there was another thing I wanted to do or see…"

Raising his eyebrows at her he asked, "What?"

She slowly reached up to the back of his head and gently pulled at the hair band keeping his hair up in that ridiculous yet cool style of his. His hair fell down to his shoulders.

He gave her an exasperated look. Honestly….

"I wanted to see your hair down." She finished sheepishly, blushing at the sight of him with his hair down.

He sighed. "Troublesome woman."

She flashed him a seductive smile as she commented, "I must say, you look absolutely appetizing right now."

A/N: Short chappie I know. ._.;; I had no time! Lol. Thanks for the reviews Last chappie. YOU GUYS ARE AMAZINGLY AWESOME. Cheered me up crazily. This chappie does not make up for that. I'll try to upload the next one as soon as possible. Anyways this chappie is a bit bittersweet. Lol. Yeah But I love the last line. XD Ahahaha.

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Sorry for the mistakes. Anyone wanna be my beta reader? I don't know if I really need one... Is my errors really bad? I hope not.

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with love,

JaliceLove