A/N: My last chapter EVER!!... until I begin my new semester. ;P I hope you like it; I really do. As always, read and review. Because reviews really do help. And I want to know what you thought of the chapter. RECOMMENDED LISTENING: Recessional by Vienna Teng but only if you liek sad music that had nothing really to do with this. It's a really good song, and some on my inspiration came from that song, but it's not like I'm going to force you. Good song, though. So yeah, read and review. Ahaha, I don't knwo why I repeated that...

I don't think I have ever felt worse in my life than I did when I woke up. The sickness swarmed into me, filling me with a disgusting heat. My nose felt runny, my head was on fire and thumping painfully, and my stomach felt nastily fully, even though I knew I had not eaten anything in a while.

"Ugh," I let out, my voice sounding clearer than my head felt.

"Well hello there, sleeping beauty," a male voice said. It sounded suspiciously like he was sick as well, because his words came out sounding like 'Well hello dere, sweeping booty.' I cracked open an emerald green eye to look over to the other side of the room where Kiba was sitting against the wall on his own bed.

One of the maids, who apparently was keeping watch on her two patients, brightened at my voice. "Sakura-sama," she said, coming over to me with a wet cloth. "Are you feeling any better? It seems as though your fever has dropped, but not drastically."

"I still feel horrible. Thanks for the cloth, though," I responded, my voice still sounding crisp and clear. As soon as she put the towel on my head, my body temperature dropped, and I felt amazingly better. That was weird. "Ah, that feels good," I said, smiling. She just smiled, and then went back to whatever she had been doing.

I saw, quickly enough, that she had been reading. She probably enjoyed sitting in the room with Kiba and I, if only for the reason that she didn't have to do much while we were sleeping.

"You've been out for two days now," Kiba said as I moved into a sitting position as well. "Well, the two days I've been awake, anyway. They said that I was asleep for about a day, but then again, I wasn't the idiot who decided to lie down on cold, wet ground in the rain, waiting for a certain Nara to help her."

My face, if it wasn't already, flushed, and I looked away from him to the quilt on my bed. He just had to remind me of why I was here, didn't he… "So, um…"

"Shikamaru's still here, if that's what you were going to ask."

"I wasn't!" I said defensively. "But that is nice to know. "

"Would you like me to go get Shikamaru-san?" the girl asked, looking up from her book. "I will be back shortly."

"No, no that's fine! No, wait, come back!" I shouted, but she was already out of the door. "Damn it…" I said, playing with the stitching of the quilt again.

I dropped back onto the pillow, letting the cloth slide off my forehead. I closed my eyes, and tried to even my breathing into a sleepish mode.

I laid there, waiting for the sound of footsteps to echo into my ears, so I could just turn my face into my pillow and pretend that I had fallen asleep again. That's what I was aiming for, anyway. It's not that I didn't want to see Shikamaru, it's just that… Oh no, wait, that's it.

"You really suck at pretending to be asleep, you know?"

"Shuddup, Kiba," I said, opening my eyes again to glare at him. He just smirked.

"What, you don't want to talk to Shika-kunnn? Too scary for you?"

I deepened my glare, trying to scare him into silence. It was not working. "Why are you in here, anyway?" I asked angrily, trying to keep my voice from shouting. That too wasn't turning out exactly the way I planned.

"He didn't want to contaminate your room, and so it was just easier to stick us both in an unused room so the nurse-maid-lady could keep a better eye on both of us. And he said something about burning all the furniture in the rooms that we stayed in, so I guess it's easier to burn everything in one room than in two."

"He did not say that!" I protested, sitting up. Uncle Jiraiya might be ready to spend his money on a huge mansion and spend a little extra to keep some of the people who needed decent jobs off the street, but he was actually pretty stingy.

"Fine. He didn't. I just wanted to see you get all mad."

We sat in the silence for a bit, and I slid back down into my bed. "So you've been in here for two days, awake, watching me sleep? That's a little creepy," I said jokingly.

"I tried my best not to watch you. Anyway, there were usually people in the way."

"Oh? Like who?" I asked. I figured he just meant the doctor or the nurse; the usual people.

Kiba looked over at me, still sitting with his back to the wall. "Well, for starters, the doctor was checking on your fever when I woke up. Your parents came to see you while I was awake. They talked to me for a bit, then left. I think Jiraiya told them you were fine, just got caught in the rain. Naruto was in here a lot, bouncing around, trying to give you medicine that I highly doubt would have done anything but made you even more sick."

"I see…" For some reason, I felt kind of sad that Shikamaru had ignored me all this time. But then again, he didn't look very happy to see me when I saw him last.

"He was in here too, you know. Every day. For the longest time. He just never blocked my view. He would sit in a chair for hours, just watching you. He would talk to me some, but mostly, he just watched you. And if you thrashed around, then he was the first one to put that towel on your head, or to stroke your hair when you started crying. It was really disgustingly sweet to watch."

"I cried?"

"Well, more or less talked in your sleep a lot. You would say things like "No, Naruto, don't do that…" or "Sai, that looks really pretty." Well, when you were calm, at any rate. But you would go through episodes when your fever was apparently really high. The doctor said that your mind was going through delusions and hallucinations. You would start sweating and crying and talking. Things like "Shikamaru, please don't leave me," and "I don't want to be alone; it's so dark and creepy! Help!" In fact, you yelled a lot."

I turned red, remembering slightly some of the freaky dreams I had had over the past few days. I had this dream that Shikamaru had come to the door instead of Kiba, and he ended up leaving, and I chased him out to the driveway and it was dark and raining and I got lost in the woods near the house. That's all I really remember from that one…

"You know, it's kind of strange you remember all of that," I pointed out, looking over at him. He just shrugged.

"It's not like I wanted to listen. I don't want to hear your wet dreams about Shikamaru anymore than you want them to get out, but I didn't really have a choice, now did I?" Kiba smirked, probably happy to be getting the chance to make fun of me again.

"I DID NOT HAVE WET DREAMS ABOUT SHIKAMARU!" I shot up, supporting myself from the waist up with one arm.

"Yep, you're definitely awake…" I flushed once more, and Kiba and I both turned to face the newest arrival to our room: Shikamaru.

"Hi there, Shikamaru!" Kiba said awkwardly. I just dropped back into my bed, throwing the covers over my head.

"Please kill me now, please kill me now, please kill me now, please kill me now…" I mumbled, clenching my eyes shut and moving the pillow over my head.

I could hear Kiba snickering over on his bed, followed by the sound of footsteps, Naruto coming in, announcing that 'Kiba needed to, um, go,' and then we were alone.

All. Alone.

I'm not sure how long we spent there, in complete silence, my embarrassment keeping me from even poking my head out to look at him.

"Sakura…"

"Hi there," I said from under the covers. I heard him let out a frustrated sigh, and I felt a tug on my little cocoon.

"It's ridiculous to try and talk to you like that. Come out." Another tug. Harder this time. I clutched onto my saving grace, keeping it covering me completely.

"Look, we can still talk like this. I'll come out when I'm, you know, ready. Just please don't make me come out… I don't think my face has returned to its normal color yet."

"Ah."

Another long pause ensued.

"So why did you leave?" I asked finally, covers still keeping me hidden. It was easier to imagine him as my friend again if I didn't look at him. It was easier to imagine him as my Shikamaru, and not some new fangled kid that grew up in the 7 or so months I'd been gone. He was the Shikamaru-in-my-head still.

"Huh? I'm still here."

"No, why did you leave your house? Did you just feel it was time for a break? A healing road trip or something?" I could imagine him closing his eyes and leaning the chair back, thinking 'Troublesome woman, always starts with the least consequential questions,' but not saying it because he knew that I'd get mad.

But who knew with 'New-Shikamaru.' "I just… It was something I had to do."

"Why?"

"Because I needed to get out for a while. I… It's just that… I needed to come see you, but I didn't… I couldn't just run up here. I needed to get my thoughts in order."

"Why did you want to come see me?"I pulled the cover down just a smidgeon, peering out at him. Just as I thought; he wasn't leaning back with his eyes closed. He wasn't staring outside, looking at the clouds. He was looking at the floor, twiddling his thumbs.

"Because you left. You left on a really bad note, and-"

"That was not all my fault. I seem to remember an angry you there, as well."

"Yeah, I know. I was upset. We never got to talk about it."

"I left, you were mad at me for doing it, end of story."

Another loud sigh. "Not that. And I wasn't mad at you, but that is besides the point. We never talked about you and Sasuke and everything that happened. It just happened, and then you left."

I began subconsciously playing with my hair, straightening it under my covers. "Do we need to talk about it? It happened; does it affect us?"

"Of course we do! And yes. It does affect… us."

I threw the covers off my head and sat up, eyeing him. He seemed kind of surprised that I had sat up, but it lasted only a few seconds. "How? How does it affect us? How does what happened with Sasuke have anything to do with you?"

I didn't mean to come off as angry or bitchy. I really, really didn't. But it just came out that way. Because, truth be told, I was getting angry, but only because this man sitting here wasn't my Shikamaru; he was a stranger in the shell of a friend. I didn't like it. I guess that was my fault, though… I was the one who left him.

"Because it hurt you. Because I was mad, not at you, but at me. I was mad because I couldn't stop it, and I didn't like not having any control over what was going on. It affects me because you were my friend, and you didn't do anything, and I couldn't do anything, and no one would do anything. It was frustrating."

"Shikamaru… it's not that I wouldn't want to talk about it if it was still a problem. But it's not. Sasuke is no problem for me anymore."

"If you saw him on the street…?"

"Then he better have a good cup on, because I plan kneeing him and then leaving. And I only want to knee him because I have a good feeling that he has a new girlfriend and she probably wants to do it herself."

"Oh," he said. "No feelings whatsoever?"

"I still don't like him. But it's not like I harbor secret love or the feeling that he has completely ruined me and I need to commit suicide."

Shikamaru didn't look at me, but instead just grinned. "As long as you're not planning to commit suicide, then I guess this talk is done with. And he has a new one, by the way."

I looked at my once-friend. I wasn't sure if we were still friends. Were we? I mean, he did said 'Because you were my friend.' So I guess not. But what if he was only saying that because he wasn't sure if I wanted us to be friends?

Gahhhhhh. Too confusing.

"A new what?"

"A new girlfriend."

"Of course he does," I said grimly. The conversation died, which made me think that Shikamaru had only thought that Sasuke would still be a problem. Silly him.

"So why were you mad last night when Kiba and I showed up at your car? Or, when I showed up?" He threw me a confused stare as I tried to re-ignite conversation, and I just looked at him. Why was he so-? "Oh, right. Um, four nights ago? Three? Five? Whenever I saw you last."

He tinged red, I swear, just for a second, but it was all gone in a moments time. "I…" He then proceeded to mumble something unintelligible.

"What was that?"

"I wanted to surprise you," he mumbled, a little louder this time. He refused to look at me, but I knew that he was blushing anyway. We sat like that for a while, and he bgan to open his mouth, so I spoke before he could start.

"Chouji and Ino were really worried about you." I was avoiding the real conversation I knew was coming, but I didn't know why. Maybe I didn't want to know the future of… us. Maybe I wanted to keep on imagining the fake relationship between head Shikamaru and I.

"Were they?"

"Who wouldn't be? I mean, you just left your house and wouldn't talk to them. Even Kiba was worried."

"Huh." He paused, stretching backwards in his chair. I could see his muscles stretching with him, and a sudden flashback reminded me of his naked upper half. I blushed. I mean, come on, who wouldn't? "Were you worried, Sakura?"

"What?"

"Were you worried… about me?"

Worried… Was I worried? About Shikamaru? My once best friend? The guy that I had a crush on for a long time? The one that was always there for me? The one that left his home because he needed to collect his thoughts and come talk to me? The one that had a picture of me? The one that got in a car accident because he was so upset over us arguing? Did he even have to ask?

"Yes. God, when I found out, I thought you were dead. I thought you were leaving for good. I couldn't control myself. I broke apart… Naruto tried to calm me, but all I could hear was… you."

And it was strange to see his reaction to the news that I still cared. That we were still friends. "Sakura…" he said, looking straight into my eyes.

"Sakura… is there an us? Is there still any chance…?"

"Of?"

"You know what I mean," he said, narrowing his eyes. He could tell I was trying to avoid the question.

I bit my lip, and pulled my legs close to my chest. "You've changed so much, Shikamaru, I just-"

"I'm still the same person," he said, tugging on my arm.

"Are you? Are you still the same person? I mean, look at you! You even look like a completely different species from the person I used to know. Can you look me in the eye and tell me you're still the same person you were when I left? That you haven't had a girlfriend, or you haven't changed something about you? That you still hang out with the same people, that you still dread going home because your mom might make you do more chores than usual? That you're still my Shikamaru?"

He looked me straight in the eye, opened his mouth, and then looked away. "No. No, I can't tell you I haven't changed. But God, Sakura, you can't expect everything to stay the same once you go! You can't expect to go on some healing journey of your own and pretend that everyone else just had to stay the same! People change and grow. Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, in any kind of –ally way you can think of."

"I'm sorry," I mumbled quietly.

"I mean, look at you! You've changed, too. And not just physically, I bet. Sure, you may have changed on the outside, but I bet that you've learned something, and something about you has changed. Maybe you've developed a taste for… What did you say?"

"I'm sorry," I said again, looking up at him. "I just… I wanted you to still be the same Shikamaru I've always known. That no matter what happened, you'd still be there for me… I'm sorry… I just…"

Suddenly, the whole world that I had built for myself where Shikamaru didn't exist and the pain I felt from not having him there was only a way of keeping me down shattered. I saw him, sitting there, and I felt the yearning that had been buried deep inside of me come back out. It had always been there. I had always wanted it. But not the façade was gone. Now, he saw the Sakura without the mask. I began to cry.

"No, Sakura, please," he said, watching me as the tears began to pour. "I didn't mean to make you cry… I just wanted to get my point across, and…" That only made me cry harder.

I felt an arm around my shoulders, and a strong pair of arms push me over just far enough for a Shikamaru sized person to sit on the bed. "Don't cry," he said again, wrapping his other arm around me and allowing me to cry into his chest.

"I'm so sorry, Shikamaru… I didn't meant to make you mad, I just… I had this vision of you the other night, where you were doing everything I had never known you to do, like drink and do drugs and I got scared that you were going to be so different when I finally got up the courage to see you, even though you hated me, that it wouldn't even matter anymore.

"And I don't know why, but seeing you whenever I did, and hearing the coldness in your voice… that hope inside me died, and I think I was taking it out on you now but it doesn't even matter anymore and I really, really, really missed you. So so so much. And it drove me crazy that I hadn't seen you, but I didn't think you'd want to see me.

"And then Naruto told me you'd left and I couldn't take it, and then I realized that I had to tell you. I had to do it, just so that way you wouldn't end up like Dan, and I wouldn't have to be a Tsuande and then drive Naruto into insanity because I couldn't love him, ever, because I was still so deeply in love with you that even though you were dead that it wouldn't matter. I would never be able to move on and all would be lost but then bam! There you were but you hated me again and so I became angry with you. Angry at myself for leaving, and angry with you for being angry with me.

"So this whole conversation, I think, I've been trying to avoid it to keep my little dream of past you and past me alive but I realize that I can't keep on living on missed chances like she did because what if you did die? I'd be screwed. And then I didn't want you to change, but change is natural, right? So I'm glad you changed, because change, especially the way you look, I mean, geeze what'd you do, work out the entire time? But really, I'm glad you changed because I changed to, and if we can change while we're apart for this long and are still compatible and still friends and still perfect for each other according to everyone then what can stop us, right? There is an us, right? There's still a chance?"

He laughed, and the sound was a good breaker for my crying. He wiped the tears from my eyes. "I believe that was the question I asked, but I think, if what you said was true, yes. The answer to that is yes. There is an us."

I laughed with him, and the smiling felt good. Really good. "All of it was true. Every single bit of it."

"Then what did you mean about Tsuande?" he asked.

"It was a story Uncle Jiraiya told me," I responded, snuggling my head up onto his chest. He pulled me over and situated us to I was sitting with my back to his chest, his arms wrapped around me, and my hands on his knees.

"For the record, though, I didn't work out the whole time. But working out was a good way to not think, and since I was thinking about you a lot, I just did it."

"Well, I like it," I said, and I definitely meant it.

"I'm glad you do, because it would take a while to get rid of them if you didn't." I smiled once more, letting it sink in that my Shikamaru WAS the new Shikamaru. He was still the same; he could make me laugh when I was crying, and make me feel safe when I felt so vulnerable. But, he was different, too. Just like I was different.

In my mind's eye, I saw the Shikamaru-in-my-head grab the hand of the past Sakura, and walk off into the white abyss of my memories.

"Oh, and one more thing," he said. I twisted my body around so I could look him in the eyes. "In your incredibly long confession, you said something about being deeply in love with me?"

"Ah, you heard that," I said, faking dejection.

"What, now you don't mean it?"

"I still do. Of course I do. But I don't want to say anything about it because I don't want you to say anything about not knowing what love is. Because I'm pretty sure I do love you, Shikamaru."

He smiled, which made me smile, and then it happened.

He kissed me.

Shikamaru Nara kissed me, Sakura Haruno.

I, Sakura, just got kissed by my best friend.

It.

Was.

Amazing.

I could feel the fireworks go off in my head; it was like a million perfect sensations pop-popping their way into my brain, and my entire body felt euphoric. My lips tingled at the contact, and my body bured with pleasure.

My eyes closed once he put a hand to my face, letting his thumb stroke my jawline. My hand found its way to his hair by way of his own extremely pronounced jaw, and I let the softness run through my fingers. My other hand was placed on his solid chest, helping support me so I wouldn't collapse completely. If I had been standing, I thought I would have fainted by now.

No kiss from Sasuke ever came close to this one. Not by a long shot.

When he pulled away, panting, he pulled me back into his chest.

"Because I'm pretty sure I love you, too."

A/N: I hoped you liked it! Remember to review: Maybe you thought their talk wan't good? Maybe you thought Sakura was out of character for this story? Maybe their whole interaction made you think,' They would NEVER do that!' or 'Why would she be so mad if she wanted to see Shikamaru! God, Rai, you suck.' I want to know, because that does help. Critism is just as, and maybe even very much more important thand just compliments. Because while compliments are amazing, and I lovelovelove them, I always get this feeling that everyone else who reads the chapter is jsut like "Psht, this is so make. Dumbass.' I know... I'm silly. XD It is also 1:23 in the morning and I'm tired, so the silliness might be in part to anothee side note, it snowed today. That was pretty awesome. I was going to say, I HOPE YOU LIKED THE TOTAL FLUFFINESS WITH THE KISSING. BECAUSE EVEN IF IT WASN'T THE FLUFFIEST, IT STILL MADE ME ALL WAMR AND FUZZY ON THE INSIDE. I've also been listening to Pandora Rasio for 3 days straight. LASTLY... GOODNIGHT.