Day 41

"Pass the ketchup, please."

"Mmhmm… hold on." Shikamaru squirted a little more ketchup onto his hamburger before closing the cap and passing it on, "Here." However, the moment it touched Ino's fingertips, a screech was heard outside, quickly followed by a slam and a few muffled yells. The trio (which was currently enjoying a lovely hamburger meal cooked up by Choji, and were sitting together around the dinner table to eat) exchanged confused, and somewhat frightened, glances. Shikamaru and Ino both clutched the ketchup bottle tightly.

The door suddenly busted open, and through it ran the very angered and rushed Inoichi Yamanaka. "Where is she!? Where is my daughter!?"

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji merely stared at him in a mixture of surprise and fright. Ino and Shikamaru continued to clutch the ketchup bottle, while the latter held a bun in midair to top off his burger and the former clutched the tablecloth. Choji held his burger near his face, his mouth wide open to take a bit but now just gaping at the sudden visitor.

"Ino!" The head Yamanaka yelled, rushing over to the table and toppling over a few lamps on his way, "Are you okay? Is everything all right? What did they do to you!?"

"They didn't do… anything, Daddy." Ino managed to squeak. Shikamaru finally let go of the ketchup bottle and she pulled it towards her, but did nothing with it. Her grip on it and the tablecloth did not loosen. "Everything's just fine!"

"Liar!" He yelled, then eyed both Shikamaru and Choji carefully. They stared back at him, Shikamaru with one eyebrow raised and his eyes wide, staring right back into Inoichi's, and Choji still halfway to eating his burger. Inoichi turned his attention to Choji, "You! Did you cook this food?"

"Er… yes?"

"What did you do to it!?"

"Nothing, I promise!

"Liar!" Inoichi lunged across the table and grabbed at Choji, who shrieked and dropped his burger onto his plate, nearly fell backwards in his chair, and jumped out of it, backing away as quickly as possible. Inoichi chased him out of the kitchen.

Shikamaru and Ino exchanged glances and instantly read each other's minds, He's lost it.

"Oi, Ino, what is your father doing?" Shikato groaned, lugging his and Yoshino's bags into the living room. He dropped them by the stairway before collapsing onto the couch and sighing, "Chasing the poor boy out of the house and down the street. If anything, he should be more worried about Shikamaru, here."

The mentioned harrumphed and took a bite out of his burger. Ino giggled and finally added the ketchup to her own burger.

"Ino, you better hurry and toss your things into the car. Your father's already gone mad and I want him away from these poor boys before any damage occurs," her mother partly whined as she entered the house and leaned against a chair. Ino groaned and shook her head.

"At least let me eat!"

"Eat in the car! I swear, it's like he wants to murder poor Choji out there!" Mrs. Yamanaka poked her head out the door to check that the Akimichi was still in one piece: his parents were currently yelling at Inoichi to calm down and stop, to let their son go, and Yoshino had joined then, adding in something about embarrassing her family in front of the neighbors (who were, indeed, staring out their windows in utter amazement). Ino mumbled something incomprehensive under her breath and stepped out of her chair, then ran upstairs to pack her things; her mother followed her to help.

"So," Shikato spoke when the two female Yamanakas were gone, "What did you do this weekend?"

"…stuff." Shikamaru mumbled. He took another bite out of his burger.

"What stuff?" Shikato stressed, looking at his son from the couch. Shikamaru harrumphed again, not speaking due to a mouthful of meat, bread, lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes. After swallowing, he realized that his father had not removed his eyes from him. He sighed and answered.

"Nothing like that. Just… watched TV. Ate Choji's cooking. Ino cleaned my room again, too."

Shikato watched him for a moment, not believing, but shrugged and looked back to the ceiling and closed his eyes. Moments later, more screaming was heard as a very angry Yoshino Nara dragged Inoichi inside by the ear.

"…and don't think you're ever allowed near this house without your wife holding you by a leash! Desecrating my family like that… running mad in front of my house! See if I every allow you over here again!"

The Akimichis followed suit behind them, staying clear of the angry Nara woman. Choji ran back over to the table and sat down, finally allowed to munch on his dinner. He was safe, for the time being, and he immediately dug into his meal. Moments later, Ino and her mother appeared from the upper floor with Ino's suitcase, carefully packed and zipped shut. They lugged it down the stairway together and tossed it at Inoichi for him to carry out the door and to the car. Ino walked back into the kitchen and sat back at the table.

"Ugh, could he have made a more graceful entrance?" She sighed, also eating her dinner meal. "Choji, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine, as long as I keep my distance." He squeezed his eyes shut thinking it over, wishing he suffered from short-term memory loss. "I understand now why your dad is so high-ranked in the army."

"Yeah, well…" Ino didn't finish her sentence, just bit her hamburger angrily.

After a moment's argument between a few older ladies and one such rampant Yamanaka man, Inoichi was tossed outside to move all the luggage into the Yamanaka family car, while the missus and daughter sat inside and relaxed with the normal folk. He wasn't happy about it, however, and shot one incredibly dangerous looking glare towards Choji and Shikamaru, who both nearly squeaked in fright and froze in their seats, remaining in that position until Inoichi disappeared from sight.

"Did you kids have a good weekend?" Mrs. Akimichi asked sweetly. The three nodded in reply, trying to scarf down their food before Mr. Yamanaka returned.

"I hope you didn't just loaf around all weekend Shikamaru," Yoshino grumbled, eyeing him, "Lord knows you would actually do anything pleasant as a host to your two visitors."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and mumbled a quick few words before taking another large bite from his burger, "No, mom."

"Hmmm." Yoshino mumbled again, keeping her words unvoiced but still watching him. Shikamaru just shook his head.

"I'm done!" Choji announced, holding up a clean plate to be approved, "When are we leaving, Dad?"

"Slow down, what's the hurry!?"

"I want to get away from the crazy man!"

"Oh please, he's fine now. Just… don't go outside. You're better off waiting for me to leave first." Ino mumbled through a mouthful of burger before swallowing, "I'm done too!"

"Great! Let's leave!" Mrs. Yamanaka pointed out the door in a hurry, "Before your father comes back in and tries to murder someone, hurry!"

Ino nodded and stood from the chair, grabbing her plate, silverware, and glass to wash off in the sink and load into the dishwasher. However, Shikamaru grabbed her arm and shook his head.

"Leave it, I'll take care of it."

Ino paused and looked at him, confused, "Really?"

"Yes really, with your dad out there ready to kill me? Get out of here, woman!"

"Right!" She hugged him tightly and kissed his cheek (the three mothers could be heard 'aww'ing in the background), "Thank you for letting me stay, Shika!"

And she and her mother were out of the door in the blink of an eye, before Shikamaru could even tell her about how much of a pleasure it was to have her there.

Short chapter this time guys, sorry. It's just that I wanted to get this mini-plot wrapped up and finished so I could get started on the next one, and this was the only thing I came up with. Excuse the crappiness.

I've already got the next part planned out (mostly). Hopefully the next chapter won't take TOO long to come up.

(haha, guess I spoke too soon about quick updates, huh?)

I'm also working on another one-shot (finally!) so stay tunned.

REMEMBER, EVERY TIME YOU READ WITHOUT REVIEWING, I GET A RANDOM POWER OUTAGE AND MY TV GETS BUSTED AND DOESN'T WORK!

Save my TV, folks.

(lawlz, that really happened)