Day 6

Ino hated dinners. You know those fancy ones your parents go all out to plan, and invite their friends or work associates or boss over for a good time? Yeah. She hated those. She always ended up meeting these weird navy people that worked with her dad, normally a rank or so above him, giving him the full right to suck up to them with some dinner. And guess who was forced to help her mom cook?

This time it was a little different, at least. Her parents at told her that this time, it wasn't just boring old soldiers coming over. No, this time he was inviting too of his oldest friends from way back when.

"Wait," Ino stopped her dad in the middle of his explanation, "Two oldest friends?" She thought back to the picture her mom had shown her of herself, Shikamaru and Choji when they were babies, and how she had mentioned that all their fathers were such good friends, "Are they Nara and Akimichi?"

"Well, yeah," Inoichi blinked at her, surprised that she knew, "Shikato Nara and Chouza Akimichi. How did you know?"

"I know their sons! Shikamaru's in all of my classes, and Choji's in one or two of them…"

"Well," He laughed, "That's just amazing, you know you three were good friends at age two."

"I heard."

"Well then, I'll ask them to bring their whole families! One big party, it'll be."

Ino faked a grin before she disappeared into her bedroom. Well, she thought to herself after collapsing onto her bed, I don't know whether to be happy or frightened…

Day 7

"So the Law of the Conservation of Mass, or Matter, is…"

Ino sideways glanced at Shikamaru while she scribbled down notes. He didn't seem to be tuned into the lesson so well. He merely slumped over in his chair, his head held up only because his left cheek rested on his left hand. He was staring distantly at the white board that Iruka was writing on, blinking slowly, but rarely. He looked deprived of sleep, she thought, but then again, he could just be extremely lazy as always. She always wondered what had gotten him to his academic standing today, because it was definitely wasn't work ethic. He didn't even copy notes!

"Shikamaru?" She whispered to him. He turned his head slightly, cocked an eyebrow and lost the distant stare. "Sorry, I just wasn't sure if you were really there or not…"

"Meh," Shikamaru mumbled and turned back to the board. Ino sighed. He probably didn't know about the dinner tonight. And it was probably better that he didn't until he walked to her door at six.

Ding-dong!

Ino turned off the TV once she heard the sound of the doorbell. A rule had been set, long ago, that she wasn't allowed to watch TV or listen to music when they had guests (unless she was allowed to spend the night in her room because she wasn't hungry or found another way out of another boring dinner). She groaned when she heard her mother squeal when she opened the door, which was coupled by another woman's squeal. Yes, this was definitely a different dinner.

Her mother finally came into view, chatting excitedly with another woman whom Ino didn't recognize. A large man with auburn hair walked in behind them and shook Inoichi's hand, grinning. Choji stood beside them.

"Hey, Choji," Ino smiled. Choji grinned and came to greet her. He sat down in a chair beside her and she laughed, "I'm sorry, but you look so different without a bag of chips in your hands."

"My parents said it'd be bad etiquette to bring my own food to dinner," He spat, "Except my dad is just as bad about eating nonstop as I am." Ino laughed again, but stopped the moment she heard the doorbell ring again. She watched her mother run for the door, and then groaned once more when she again squealed, and again another woman squealed with her. Choji's mom followed her to the door, and the squealing grew again. The two plus another unrecognizable woman walked back, giggling, followed by a man with black hair and a rather unhappy Shikamaru.

Ino didn't greet Shikamaru as she did Choji, but only stared at him. Hurry up and look this way, lazy boy… she thought, notice me! Notice that you're at my apartment for my dinner!

Her will finally took power of Shikamaru, because just then his head turned to see the two teenagers sitting across the room from him. He nodded at Choji… then widened his eyes in shock at Ino.

"This is your house?" Shikamaru groaned, "How troublesome. When my dad told me that we were visiting and old friend of his in town, I never would have expected it to be your dad."

"It's a long story," she said, not taking her eyes off of him. Shikamaru came and sat across the couch from her and crossed his arms. He propped his legs up on the coffee table and grunted.

"Feet off the table," Ino growled, but he didn't move, "My house, my rules."

"What, do you eat off this thing?"

"It doesn't matter if I eat off it or not, your feet are still nasty."

But lazy-ass Shikamaru didn't move an inch. Ino narrowed her eyes and frowned, reached over and punched him. Shikamaru growled back and put his feet down. "Troublesome," he mumbled under his breath. She punched him again, and he screamed, "Damnit, woman, lighten up!"

"Shut up!" She hissed, "You should respect my house while you're in it, I can throw you out!"

"Would you really throw out an old friend?" He smirked. Choji raised and eyebrow as if to ask Ino the same question.

Ino flared up, the anger building inside beginning to release itself through her face, "Old… friend!? You knew!?"

"Well duh," he looked at her like she was stupid, "It's not like my mom, or Choji's, for that matter, has never told us stories about our childhood. In fact, I recognized you the second you walked up to me on day one." He laughed at her furious expression, "I'm a genius, after all."

"Well," She attempted at calming down, "You wouldn't want to piss off an old friend, would you? Friends stick together, right?"

"Pssh, hardly. We're not really friends in that sense. We only used to know each other, Ino, and just happen to have reunited. We're acquaintances, nothing more."

"I don't have to be your friend to know you're such a lazy bastard!"

"You don't have to have met me before to know I'm a lazy bastard." Choji nodded in agreement with Shikamaru's words. Ino only grew madder.

"I'll change you." She said almost threateningly, and stood up with clenched fists.

"We've been apart for fourteen years, Ino," he stood up as well, crossed his arms and looked down on her. Damn him and his taller height! "You left when we were two, and have no memories of me or Choji. You don't know me, Ino. You don't know what makes me tick. You don't know why I'm so smart. You don't know my strengths and weaknesses. And trust me," he narrowed his eyes, "It'll take you longer than you have to find all that out through the mouths of other students at our school. I'm such a lazy bastard; I find it even too troublesome to mention anything about myself to other people."

Ino's fists began to shake. Man does he piss me off! His know-it-all, lazy attitude, his contradictive words, his… taller height! She yelled and moved to punch him, but she was stopped by another force.

Choji stood between the bickering pair, his hand having intercepted Ino's fist inches before it made contact with Shikamaru's face. The latter wasn't even fazed.

"Hey, you three!" Ino's mother popped in from the kitchen, "Dinner's about to start!

"In a minute!" Ino half-growled, her teeth clenched in a fake smile. Choji nodded and grinned, and Shikamaru merely shifted his shoulders.

"Could we wrap this up?" He groaned, "I'm getting hungry."

"No," Choji brought Ino's hand back down to its rightful place by her side and crossed his arms, "As much as I hate to say it, I'll keep you two from dinner until you come to some sort of settlement. You can't be angry at the dinner table, I've always been taught that."

Ino and Shikamaru exchanged hurtful glares, and each scoffed at his comment. They moved for the kitchen, but Choji grabbed their wrists.

"I mean it."

Ino and Shikamaru collapsed back onto the couch and scowled at the wall in front of them. The eventually exchanged hungry looks, both understanding that the other just wanted to get out of that room and get dinner.

"All you have to do is leave me alone, Ino."

"And all you have to do is accept me," She smiled, "as your best friend."

Shikamaru groaned, "You really are the most troublesome woman ever."

"And you're a troublesome guy. That makes us a match, hmm?" She grinned.

"Fine, fine, I'm hungry enough to agree to this."

"Shake on it?" She held out a hand. He grudgingly shook it and looked straight to Choji, "Can we go?"

Choji frowned, a little unsatisfied, but nodded, "All right, I'm hungry too."

The teenage trio couldn't believe they chose this dinner over sitting in the other room with malice floating between them.

"Well my boy is first in the class."

"Mine is the best wrestler on the team!"

"My daughter is an amazing artist!"

"Amazing artist, eh?" Shikamaru whispered to her. Ino pointed to the various manipulated photos that lined the walls.

"I do ad design things on Photoshop. We actually stayed somewhere long enough for me to take a class on it."

"Interesting," Shikamaru cringed as he listened to his mother describe every A honor roll he'd made since kindergarten, "You'd think that you could just say 'Oh, he's been on the A Honor Roll since kindergarten' and be done with it, right? No. She memorized every grade I made just to brag."

"I heard she's the reason you actually try."

"She is," he stuck his fork in the pasta before him, "but I guess I also do it to prove something. Being a lazy bastard isn't the greatest reputation in the world, but it can have its benefits every so often."

"I'm on the wrestling team because it's some family tradition to my dad," Choji jumped into the conversation with a mouth full of steak, "It's cool, really, but he doesn't let it go."

Ino laughed, "Really? Well, it sucks to have an overprotective father who lives off every thing you do and turns it into an award that he can brag about to all his soldier buddies," she smiled, "But it's nice that, for once, I have someone to share the embarrassment with during the conversation."

"You must really be used to this, huh?"

"I'll never be used to it."

"Ino was walking when she was 6 months old!"

"Shikamaru was talking when he was 6 months old! You know what his first word was? Troublesome."

"Choji was eating solid food when he was 6 months old!"

"Liar!"

"You wish!"

That chapter took too long to write XD. Mild writer's block, I suppose. Hopefully the next one won't be too much like that.

Next chapter… hey, Ino, I thought birthdays were a happy thing?

EVERY TIME YOU READ WITHOUT REVIEWING A HIPPO DIES BECAUSE TOO MANY PEOPLE JUMPED ON ITS BACK BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT HE/SHE WAS A STONE.

Save the hippos.