Chronicles of the Lazy-ass Ninja!

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Chapter 5: Bluff

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Disclaimer: I'm not Kishimoto, so… yeah that's about it.

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The day following the dreaded paperwork, Sakura waked up early. She wanted to set things straight with Shikamaru, because she had no idea what actually happened yesterday. Yes, she got an A, and yes, she understood that Sasuke didn't particularly like someone being smarter than him, but something else was bothering her: It was her teammate. How much did the boy change the paperwork to have that grade? Was it all pure luck? Fat chance! She thought. But then why the low grades? Was he really that smart? Was he smarter then Sasuke? Was that even possible!? As she hurried to school, she pondered and analyzed every known aspect of her former teammate; it wasn't much. He was lazy, and he was rude; that was about all she knew of him. In fact, that was about all of the class known of him. She remembered that some of her friends from the opposite sex said that aside from Choji and Ino, nobody talked to him. And by the way Ino rarely spoke of him; she figured her friend didn't know much about the elusive boy either. It seemed the only way she'd ever go to the bottom of this was to actually talk to him.

She realized she arrived too early as soon as she stepped on the school grounds. Not even the teachers were here. She began to realize she was apprehensive about this. You could almost say she was worried. What would she do if he was smarter than her? Because that was really what was troubling her: how could a good for nothing bum like him be better than her? She had passion and a motive, albeit a stupid one; he had… well nothing actually. It seemed that he didn't even know why he was here in the first place. The thoughts stalked Sakura all the way into the class room where she quietly sat in her place, waiting until finally she opted for some studying.

Surprisingly, Shikamaru was the next to enter the classroom after her; not so surprisingly, he totally ignored her, went straight for his desk and just dropped, like dead. She didn't expect any form of politeness from him, but a simple "hey" would have been nice. She shrugged the urge she had to punch him in the face and decided that now was the perfect chance for discussion. She walked towards the Nara's desk and coughed politely, to divert his attention. No response.

- Pardon me, Shikamu-san?

- Hmm? The kid sounded tired.

- Ah… it's about the paper you filled out yesterday. I really must thank you; because of you, we got the best grade of the class. The problem his that I didn't get to look at what you wrote, so I have no idea what I need to study to improve. Is it okay with if I borrowed the paper, please?

Upon closer inspection, The Nara kid was sleeping, his head resting on his arm. You could even hear the subtle and even breathing, which only served to infuriate the girl. Veins popped out as she started to lose total control of herself. Forget politeness; this guy deserved a good whooping. As the other Sakura was taking over, a loud "SHANNARO!!" was heard, effectively jolting Shikamaru out of his sleep. It was too late though. He could only think one thing while watching the pink haired student in front of him: impending doom. He had one question however: was this some kind of blind rage he had no way to escape from or was there anyway to get out of this mess – alive, that is? The answer came rapidly.

- The paper!

- The paper? You're telling me you woke me up and you want to kill me for the sake of that stupid paper?

Actually it wasn't just a paper for the young Nara. From what he understood about the girl in front of him, giving her the paper meant telling her he was smart. The risk was also high that she'd figure out that he was more than just smart. Not that he particularly cared that she knew about it, but it would mean that Ino would learn about the paper as well. And once any kind of news reached Ino… well might as well say that the whole village would know about it. That could only mean one thing: Her mother would know. For Shikamaru, his mom was trouble times 100. He could only imagine how much trouble this would escalate to if he didn't act fast. Hopefully, he'd found something before long. Of course that though of process only lasted an instant, considering anything longer would make him suffer a swift, yet painful death.

- Look can't we just forget about the paper and…

- SHAAA!!... Sakura's war cry and angry glare advised otherwise.

- I guess not. Fine, fine here you go.

Shikamaru, handed the paper out of heaven knows where at blinding speed, probably thinking that it would be best to actually work for the rest of his days and be alive the few moments of peace he'd have left. He tried to utter something like "troublesome girl", but the glare he received just then convinced him against it. Instead, he sighed loudly and let his head rest on his arm, his mind franticly searching for a way out of this; preferably alive and without his mom getting wind of this. As he was forming and throwing out ideas in his head, he suddenly realized that Sakura didn't look like she was going to kill him anymore. He was right; at first Sakura was indeed thinking of ending the rude bum's days short after confirming her theory, but the thoughts were quickly washed away after re-reading the part Shikamru had written. This wasn't at all what she expected.

- This… this…

- Yeah…?

- This… you wrote this?

- What? Is something wrong with the spelling?

- This…

- Out with it, you annoying girl! I was trying to sleep, you know.

- Shikamaru-san, what you wrote is brilliant!

- Pardon?

- How did you figure that out?

- Dumb luck, I guess.

- What!? And you're expecting me to believe that!?

Actually, Shikamaru didn't lie when he said that; he truly believed that he had gotten the right answer by luck. Though he knew he was somewhat smarter than most, he had a certain conception of school. He couldn't conceive that he'd be able to do something right in the academy without studying, hence his remarkably poor grades. Studying was a hassle; as was this girl.

- I'm definitely sure this is no fluke, Shikamaru-san!

- And don't call me that! Shikamaru-san sounds so troublesome.

- Huh?

- Just call me Shikamaru, like everybody else, and be done with it.

- Anyway, …Shikamaru-san, how come you were able to write this? Are you sure you weren't cheating?"

- This getting more troublesome by the minute. Just forget it, girl.

- Hah, like I could now! If you are indeed cheating, reporting you could earn me some better grades and…

Man, his her grades all she's thinking about besides Sasuke? Wait… Sasuke. The scowl present on Shikamaru's face diminished a little.

- You really should drop it, you know. Or else…

- Or else what? Sakura was really confident that the boy in front of her had nothing on her.

- I got a theory; do you know whose desk this is? he said pointing at the desk to his left.

- Of course I know. It's… Her heart skipped a beat. This is Sasuke-kun's desk.

The boy rolled his eyes before continuing:

- Let's say I move my head a little more to the left. I would in talking distance of the Uchiha, wouldn't I?

- …I don't see were you going with this.

- What if I told him something like this: "Sakura is better than you. She told me while we were working together that she was purposely holding out on her grades out of pity and the paper is proof of this." What do you think he'd do?

- You… you wouldn't!?

Of course he wouldn't, he wouldn't even dream of it. The probability that Sasuke would even pay enough attention to understand what the genin in training would tell him was abysmal. Not mentioning that his awesome ego would never permit him to believe that someone was better than him. In the end, no matter how you looked at it, this reeked of a poor bluff. Shikamaru was counting on one thing though: Sakura fanaticism towards Sasuke. It was the only weakness he could exploit. And it paid off: against all odds – and logic – She begged the boy in front of her not to tell anything to her prince charming providing she'd forget about this whole incident. The little genius was all too happy to escape another troublesome situation. He took the paper and put it in his pocket, planning to burn it later.

By that time, Iruka had entered the class.

- Hmm…? What are you doing here Sakura? Shikamaru, I'm not surprised, but you…

- Ah… we were just discussing the paper we had to do for yesterday.

- I see.

- Why aren't you surprised that Shikamaru is here?

- Well, it's kind of normal considering what kind of mother he has.

- Oh really?

She said that with a smile that the devil himself would envy. Shikamaru didn't like it one bit. The teacher went on to explain that Shikamaru's mom was kind of strict and was the only person to be able to make her lazy son do… well anything actually. When Sakura asked for the reason, the Chunnin simply replied that it ran in the family. The black haired pineapple had a rough idea how brainy the pink haired girl was. He knew for sure this tidbit of detail was enough for her that Shikamaru feared his mother. He didn't let that transpire though: he rested his head on his arms as usual, and tried to sleep as casually as possible. Soon after that, the class started. The black haired pineapple started to think about what Sakura could do with this information, but quickly disregarded it: it wouldn't do any good to worry about it anyway. It wasn't like he had anything she wanted or something like that, and they had already agreed on a mutual silence. Besides, it wasn't really the time to think about it: The genin exam was close. Very close.

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