*Several Years Later*

No matter how many times he tried to convince himself that he didn't care, it bothered the 11-year-old Nara that TenTen wasn't true to her word. 'Well,' he thought to himself one day during lunch break, while looking out the window to the clouds, 'she didn't technically promise that she'd see me around. No big deal, really." Yet, everytime he thought of this particular "situation", he'd come across to the same conclusion, 'It's so obvious, Shikamaru!' he scolded himself, 'She thought you were a freak and didn't want to be mean!' Of course, this didn't stop him from thinking about her, even though he'd basically told himself the same thing everyday for about four years. It's not like he hadn't see her around the academy after four years, it's that she hadn't seen him, or so he thought. See, he took the "see ya around" literally, and, as far as he knows, she hasn't seen him around, because if she had, she'd of said something. He'd just stare whenever he saw her during recess, or as the kids his age called it "break time", to him it was still recess, only because some students still ran around and played games. She'd always be doing the same thing, sitting down with that Hyuuga kid and this kid with bushy eyebrows, Lee, was it? Anyway, this confused him even more, 'I thought she hated the Hyuuga,' he thought when he first saw them conversing, he sighed quietly, 'females.' After that day, when he saw them walking together or talking together, he had this strange urge to punch Neji in the face, he'd never do it though, he thought it'd take to much energy and cause problems. But, still, he didn't get it, why was she with Hyuuga? 'Why is she always with Hyuuga?' he thought to himself while observing them during recess, 'More importantly, why do I even fucking care? I barely know her. Whatever.' Out of the three, TenTen and Lee would talk the most and laugh the most, Neji would smirk or speak with no expression on his face. Oddly enough, it was Neji that saw the young Nara staring in TenTen's direction. He leaned in on TenTen's ear. 'What is he gonna do!' Shikamaru freaked. After a second or two he pulled away and started to talk to Lee, TenTen looked towards Shikamaru and smiled, she got up, waved to her friends, and walked towards him. 'Great. She's coming this way.' Shikamaru realized, 'Probably to ask why I was staring at her. What do I say? "Oh, yeah, I've been staring at you during recess everyday for four years, I'm surprised you haven't noticed" God! I'm such a stalker! Why did, or do, I even care what she's doing! Stupid Hyuuga, telling on me. If I decide one day to take my revenge on people, he's so gonna die first. I'm gonna take a kunai and-'

"Hey!" she smiled, not knowing she interupted the mental killing of her friend by Shikamaru.

"...Hey." he said, he decided to close his eyes and try to look like he was thinking.

"Are you thinking about something?"

"Yeah." he replied quickly. She laughed a little. "What?" he asked, opening his eyes and slightlly glaring at her.

"You're not thinking about anything," she said knowingly, "don't try and lie to me."

"How would you know?" he asked, trying not to sound to surprised or offended about the fact that she saw threw what he thought was brilliant lie to get her away, "We've only ever spoken once. That time that I was seven and you randomly came up and started complaining about Uchiha and insulted the Hyuuga over there." He tilted his head towards Neji.

"Huh, You remembered that?" she asked, Shikamaru nodded. "Oh, I just thought that you wouldn't want to talk to me, you looked like you felt awkward." She sat down next to him, back against the tree.

"Well, it didn't and doesn't matter really," he lied to her, or was it to himself? "I perfer being alone with my thoughts whenever I can." So, he closed his eyes, hoping that she would leave before she asked that dreaded question about him staring at her.

"So," 'Oh God, please don't ask!' "Neji said that you kept looking our way. I was wondering. Can you tell me why?" 'SHIT! THE HYUUGA IS SO GONNA DIE!' He mentally paniked, though on the outside he look completely calm and lazy, as he always did, and came up with an excuse.

"..Well, you know. Just blankly staring at things while I think about my mother..." 'What the hell, Shikamaru!' he scolded himself for a pathetic excuse.

"Your mother?" she sounded worried, "Is she alright?" 'Fuck! Now what...'

"Yeah, I mean, the medics said she'd be fine. And, she's been doing really well. Just started yelling me again about a week ago, so, she's fine."

"Hmm, what happened?"

"Sh-she fell," he didn't know why he was telling her this stupid excuse of a lie, but he kept going. His story went something like this: his father took him out to train in his shadow techniques while his mother stayed home to do some spring cleaning, she went up the stairs with a bucket for mop water, and filled up it up in the bathroom, that's upstairs, and when she was coming down, she spilled the water on the top step without noticing, took a step, and slipped, causing her to fall down the stairs.

"I see," TenTen said, "Tell her I hope she gets better," she got up and dusted her pants, "then tell her that I hope she lectures on why lying to people is so bad and that staring is rude, especially if you don't have a valid reason to stare." Shikamaru got a tad bit pale when he heard that last part, if is mother found out that he was lying, about her especially, he'd get a good lecture on morals and values and respecting people, and blah blah blah.

"Uh..." he didn't know what to say. TenTen turned around and looked back at him.

"Oh, and the reason I know that you weren't thinking is because I noticed that everyday, when you actually are, you scrunch up your eyebrows and breathe a little slower than you usually do. See ya around, Shikamaru." she smiled and walked towards Hyuuga and bushy brows.

Shikamaru smirked, 'well, at least I know one more thing about her,' he stared at her, she took her seat next to Neji and laughed at the exaggerated movements that Lee was doing, 'she's been watching me everyday for about four years.'