Title: Dancing Diplomats
Author: LightMyWay
Rating: T
AN: Sorry it's been a long wait. I know there are some people who want to murder for taking so darn long with this, but please don't!
Reason 1 it took so long was that it got deleted right after I had finished it. And I couldn't remember most of the stuff I wrote, so I had to try and remember. I finally gave up and wrote a new chapter 7. But I seriously almost cried.
Reason 2 is school. I hope my school burns down...Man that would be awesome...
Reason 3 was that I got grounded from the computer for talking back to my mom –rolls eyes-
Reason 4 that stupid writers block decided to show up. So thanks for those people who are sticking by the story. And thanks to those that reviewed.
Chapter 7: How Not To Killed By Shikamaru
Envy can be a positive motivator. Let it inspire you to work harder for what you want. -Robert Bringle
Well, no one could say that the mission had been boring. The sad part was that the mission wasn't even close to being done. And really she wanted it over with. There was a bed back home waiting to be slept in. A comfortable bed that she missed. Sure the things here were nice, but home was just better. Although she did get to spend more time with her friends here, but part of the job was to go on missions. Friends weren't part of the job description. But still it was nice to be able to just sit with her girls and talk to them. She closed her blue eyes against the bright sunlight and just listened to everything going on around her. These moments were always the best Ino believed.
"C'mon girls! Time to go get some breakfast!" Sakura said springing up from her position on the ground and almost toppling over again. Forcing laughs from the mouths of the girls surrounding her. She seemed to have more energy than anyone these days. They started walking towards the dining room with a dancing and singing Sakura. The boys came around the corner from the opposite direction. Sakura hooked arms with Sasuke and swung him around still singing and dancing before dislodging herself and bounding through the door before them.
"What was that about?" Sasuke asked staring at the doorway through which one could see Sakura dancing still. People shrugged and muttered, still staring at the strange pink haired girl. It was then that Ino became suddenly aware of an arm around her shoulders. She blinked in confusion of the hand on her shoulder.
"Hey babe!" a strange man whispered in her ear, while lowering his arm to around Ino's waist. Almost immediately Ino's eye started to twitch, a crystal clear danger sign. Some people in the small assembly had heard him and turned around, including a very annoyed looking Shikamaru.
"Get off," Ino hissed, but the man only tightened his grip on her and tried to slide his arm down a little lower, but Ino resisted and tried to move out of his grip. Out of nowhere Shikamaru slammed his fist into the guy's face.
"She said get off," Shikamaru hissed looking completely pissed off. For a few seconds no one blinked. Even Sakura had enough sense to stop singing and dancing.
"Awkward!" she said from inside the dining room quickly taking a seat. Most of the group followed suit, so as to not end up in the confrontation. The man on the floor looking stunned slowly sat up. It was as if he'd never been hit before.
"That's no way to treat Feudal Lord's son!" the boy said standing up and glaring menacingly at Shikamaru.
"That's no way to treat a woman," Shikamaru muttered, who from the looks of things getting ready to hit the idiot Feudal Lord's son. The only thing stopping him was the Ino dragging him away and into the dining room. When she finally managed it she pushed him into a chair, ran out of the room, and shut the doors.
"You are so damn lucky," Ino said glaring at the guy before her, "He would have beaten you to a pulp." The guy just rolled his eyes and ignored her.
"Please, do you really think he could have done anything?" he waved his hand as if it showed that it was nothing.
"Just stay away from him and me," Ino said still glaring before she opened the door and took her seat by Shikamaru's side. The son sat at the head of the table. The quiet was insanely deafening, with Shikamaru and the Akio, as he'd come to introduce himself, glared at each other. Everyone take some food from the platters laid before them and nibbled as the death aura the two guys were emanating grew steadily. The atmosphere soon became suffocating in the small, well not that small, dining room. Some people liked the silence. People like Sasuke, Neji, Gaara, and in normal situations Shikamaru, but these were not normal. Other people made small noises like hitting plates a fork to make a small ringing sound. People like Sakura, Tenten, Suzuki, and in normal situation Ino, but once again these were not normal situations. Not at all.
"So..."Sakura said trying to break the stuffy silence that had settled in the room, "How is everyone's breakfast?"
"It'd be better if he wasn't here," Akio muttered jabbing his finger to Shikamaru's general direction.
"It'd be better if he wasn't alive," Shikamaru said glaring at Akio, who glared back.
"Well, maybe if you weren't an idiot-" Akio was cut off.
"I have an IQ of over 200. Can you claim the same thing, moron?" Shikamaru said in a half growl, half normal voice.
"That doesn't include common sense does it?" Akio snarled.
"I have then you'll ever have," Shikamaru glared a death glare, "You're stupid and annoying no wonder Suzuki doesn't want to marry you."
"She's marrying someone else. That's why she doesn't want to marry me," Akio muttered, "And there's no one willing to marry a lazy ass at least there are people wanting to marry me."
"Because you're rich. They want your money to naïve fool," Shikamaru didn't mind letting the stinging truth hit Akio. He probably wouldn't believe it anyway.
"Duh," Akio muttered slightly shocking Shikamaru, who didn't show it on his controlled face, "But that's better than people not wanting me because I'm lazy." Shikamaru's eye began to twitch a sure sign of what was to become. Sasuke and Naruto recognized this as a Sakura like blow up. The two shared a quick look before quietly getting up and slipping inch by inch toward the door. Sakura watched the two before silently joining them.
"Well then we know how to solve this don't we," Shikamaru said with a small smirk. Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura stopped inching towards the door. It looked things were calming down...maybe?
"How? By me kicking your ass? I like that idea," Akio said without a hint of fear in his eyes, even after he got hit by Shikamaru. But Shikamaru's smirk only grew larger.
"A bet," he said as if it was the simplest solution in the world. Akio, scratch that, the whole room stared at him blankly for a few seconds.
"A...bet?" Akio muttered his eyebrows coming together, while trying to figure out what this meant.
"Whoever gets the most girls to go out with him by the end of the day wins," Shikamaru said with the small smirk still in place.
"Fine. What happens if I win?" Akio said and then he got his own smirk, "If I win I get Ino." Ino choked on her orange juice. Hinata hit her on her back so that she could regain her breathing abilities.
"Excuse me!" Ino yelled, but went unheard.
"Fine. If I win I get Ino and you leave her alone," Shikamaru said. The two shook hands.
"I. AM. NOT. SOMETHING. YOU. CAN. BET. ON!" Ino screamed at the two of them.
"Actually we just did," Shikamaru said. Ino smacked him and stomped out of the room.
"THE NERVE!" she screamed. Hinata quietly slipped out of the room to calm Ino down.
"Shit. Now you've done it," Sakura muttered taking Hinata leave. Tenten shook her head and followed.
"Well, whoever said this wasn't going to be interesting lied," Temari said before kissing Kiba on the cheek and following the other girls out the door. Suzuki said a silent pray and followed after them. The guys stared at door for a few seconds before turning to look at the guys involved in the bet. But one of the betters was missing.
"NO FAIR!" Akio roared and ran out of the room.
So far the bet was progressing fairly well. Shikamaru was leading due to his head start. Akio was catching up quickly though. The other guys were watching the two to make sure there was no cheating. The girls had managed to clam Ino down, so they were able to make her stay within the palace bounds. To Shikamaru it was weird how natural this came to him considering he didn't care much about women. Too troublesome to put it in his own terms. Akio was used to having girls hang all over him, so all he had to do was walk down a street and ask a girl out. So the fierce battle of dating continued.
"How long is this going on again?" Sasuke asked his eye twitching. He seemed to be attracting more girls than either of the boys involved in the bet and it was getting on his last nerve...not that that was hard.
"Until the end of the day," Naruto said threw a bored yawn. He was attracting his own party of girls, but he ignored them and kept walking. He watched as Shikamaru asked another girl.
"That's number 56," Sasuke sighed. It has been funny in the beginning when Shikamaru wasn't really sure what to do and kept messing up. But after about 4 girls he caught onto the whole thing, so it was boring. They only that it could be better was if he slipped up again, which didn't seem to be happening anytime soon. Sasuke, Naruto, and the now turned fan girls for the two followed Shikamaru into the nearest shop where he was taking his so called date.
It was a weird shop. One filled with things like frog legs and weird plants hanging from the ceiling. Of all the places in the city Naruto and Sasuke couldn't help, but wonder why here. And why for every single date. It dawned on them that had always stood by the door when Shikamaru walked in with his dates and then the girl he had come in with would walk out without him. Then, casually Shikamaru would walk by and pick out a new girl. So what exactly happened in the back of the shop?
Carefully Sasuke started walking towards the back. Naruto started to follow, but knocked something over, so that he had to pick it up and make as much noise as possible in the process. Sasuke shook his head making some girl in the next aisle swoon. And just as Naruto stopped being an idiot the girl Shikamaru had been with walked out of the shop with a stricken look on her face.
"I'm going to kill you dobe..." Sasuke said as his eyes slowly turned red.
"Well at least we have something to keep us occupied!" Naruto murmured retreating through the door as Sasuke advanced.
"That's 57!" Shikamaru whispered to them as he walked past with the girl who had been swooning over Sasuke. And then the two began to move to the back again, with Naruto knocking something over again much to Sasuke's annoyance. And so the dating continued...
Gaara, Kiba, and Neji were faring no better in fact they had it worse. Akio was completely boring from the beginning since he seemed to go out with a lot of girls. The three ninja even found themselves slightly wishing that they had stayed behind with the girls to calm Ino down. They kept walking keeping a mental count only talking once in awhile to make sure they all had the same number. What was weird was how fast Akio got rid of the girls and how none of them seemed upset. But whatever he was doing was his business...right?
"What do you think he's saying to them?" Kiba asked looking through a shop window at the feudal lord's son. Neji shrugged looking nonchalant about the whole thing, but he really did want to know. Gaara just stared at Kiba wishing that he could strangle him. It was a brother's right to strangle the guy going out with his sister...But as this thought passed through Akio walked out of the shop walked up to another girl and asked her out, while the girl he had just been with walked away with no emotion on her face.
"Hey!" Kiba called out and the girl turned around, "What'd he say to you?"
"That I was being used as part of a bet! Well that wasn't going to happen, so I left him! The jerk!" she turned on her heel and stomped away looking ready to kill the next person that talked to her.
"Well, that's one way to get rid of a girl..." Neji muttered crossing his arms and closing his eyes. He had his own little fan group standing behind him that he was trying to ignore, but apparently crossing your arms just made them like you more.
"Oh my God! That's the Kazekage!" some girl screamed and Gaara's eyes flicked toward her form. He gave her a harsh glare that didn't seem to affect her at all. Kiba simply smiled at the girls from time to time, so that they didn't bother him at all, but rather stared at him waiting for next smile.
"I guess it could be worse..." Kiba said with a small smile. And course it started to rain. Both Neji and Gaara turned towards Kiba and glared full force at him.
"My bad," Kiba muttered...
And now with the rain. And Naruto screwing up every plan Sasuke had of figuring out what went up in the back room. And the boredom. And the 63 girls. And the cold. No bet was worth this; however the bet didn't damper the girl's spirits. They stood there and went out with Shikamaru. They went with him to the back room. Then they walked out without him. And Sasuke wanted to know what he was saying to them, but Naruto kept screwing up...like usual.
"Dobe try not to screw up this time," Sasuke muttered as they entered the shop again.
"Teme! Don't call me dobe!" Naruto shouted clearly not hearing the rest of Sasuke's sentence. The two silently went towards the back of the shop. So far so good. Naruto hadn't done anything stupid.
"TEME! LOOK AT THIS! IT'S LIKE SOME KIND OF HEAD!" Naruto shouted. Shikamaru stuck his head out the door in the back and glared at the two of them. Sasuke walked by to where Naruto was and dragged him away from the jar he was examining. Once they were safely by the doors again Shikamaru's head went back into the back room. A short while later the girl walked out...and Naruto got an idea.
"Hey, hey!" he shouted at her and she stopped, "What happened in that room?"
"The woman read my fortune and told me I was going to marry that man," she shivered, "I don't want to marry him!" she sprinted out into the rain. Sasuke and Naruto stared after her.
"Married?" they said looking at each other.
"Good way to get rid of troublesome females," Shikamaru said, "You guys attract them, I tell them I'll get you guys to take them out on a date if I take them out first, they agree, the old lady in the back tells them I'm going to marry them , they run off, and then the process starts again. It's very simple actually." Shikamaru shrugged and walked outside into the rain to find another girl. The other two boys simply stared after him.
Akio seemed to have trouble getting rid of his latest girl. Seemed like whatever he told her made her like him more. The guys counting only watched and silently laughed at him. It was only when the girl winked at them when Akio's back was turned that they knew she was doing it to get back at him. And that only upped the laughter threatening to spill forth from their mouths. They liked this girl simply because she was making things interesting. Unfortunately, Akio managed to catch on. He glared at the girl, who only smirked at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Hope this girl is worth it," she said with a smile and waved as she walked away, but not before giving each boy a kiss before she left for keeping silent about what she had been doing to Akio. Akio watched her walk away feeling a little bit weird about watching her walk away. He shrugged and moved onto the next girl.
"I think he really liked her," Kiba said, "Even if he was trying to get rid of her. Ya think he'll give up on Ino?" The three boys exchanged looks.
"Not a chance," they said together and watched Akio with girl number 60.
A few hours later a rather large group of people gathered in an elegant dining room in an elegant palace with an elegant garden with elegant people to tend to it and with a bunch of other elegant things. In walked some soaked boys who'd stood out in the rain for a bet, two of which were glaring at each other. And now it comes down to the final tally of who was able to date more girls...most of whom were fuming due to being told that they were part of a bet...or were going to marry a guy they didn't wan too, but that's not the point. The point is...I really don't know what the point is...Pretend that the author never wrote that statement and continue reading...
"So who won?" Sakura asked looking from one group to another. The girls were all huddled around Ino, whom seemed a little peeved again, in case she decided she needed to hurt someone.
"I did!" both of the betters yelled at the same time only to glare at each other.
AN: I should stop it here.- evil grin- Lucky for you guys I'm nicer than that... sometimes...
"Akio got 105," Neji muttered ringing out his shirt, so that there was a little puddle of water on the floor.
"Shikamaru got 107," Sasuke muttered shaking some of the water from his hair, "He wins." Akio looked crestfallen and Shikamaru only grinned with glee. It took the men in the room a few minutes to realize that the women were backing away from Ino, who had been stonily silent throughout the whole exchange. Shikamaru sensed danger and quickly started for the door.
"Shikamaru Nara! You set one foot outside that door and you're in deeper trouble than you already are! That goes for you too Akio Sato!" Ino said as her menacing blue eyes swung onto the man, who stopped dead in his tracks.
"I'm gonna go...shopping!" Sakura said, "Went to come with me Tenten?"
"Sure! C'mon Hinata! C'mon Temari!" Tenten said racing out the door behind Sakura.
"Let's go Suzuki!" Temari yelled as she and the other girl ran to catch up.
"I'll go...protect them!" Sasuke mumbled, "Move it dobe."
"I. AM. NOT. A. DOBE!" Naruto yelled stomping out after Sasuke. They other guys quickly followed. When all had left Ino sat surveying the two handsome men before her. And then there were some strange banging, pleading, and yelling that came from the dining room.
"You think it's safe to go back?" Tenten asked no one in particular. There were some mumbles and grumbles at the very thought of setting a foot in that house right now.
"Guess not," Hinata said quietly, staring at a book in one of the stores they came across. Sure it was dark out and sure none of the stores were open, but hey it was nice to look...and be away from Ino's anger, although the latter was left unsaid...
"I'm hungry," Temari muttered staring greedily at all the food shops they passed by. No one had brought money and they were all steadily growing hungry. There was a silent verdict reached that they would return to the house. Going hungry was worse then Ino's anger, which should have subsided by now...right?
So off through the streets the group went, trooping off for a well earned meal. And with the hope that they wouldn't encounter any malevolent wrath when they got home. It took only a few minutes to get there because the need took over their minds and they sprinted to the palace. Upon entering the garden leading to the house, two figures were discovered in a lip lock by a small pond. Upon closer inspection those two figures could be made out as Ino and Shikamaru. The large group tip toed past the two as silently as possible.
"Well, I'd say she's not angry anymore," Sakura said with a smile on her face, while she took a seat in the dining room.
"How long do you think they've been like that?" Tenten asked.
"For awhile," Hinata said with a small delicate smile on her face.
"That's one less angry person to worry about. Now all we have to do is fix Sakura and we're golden," Temari said with a smirk.
"HEY! I RESENT THAT!" Sakura yelled jumping up from her seat. And this is where we'll leave our story. At least for now. Because eventually the authoress will write more and hopefully it won't get deleted...
AN: Well there's chapter 7. Now to go start chapter 8...
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