Day 70

Students all across the school, of every grade and of every caliber, were pained with loss of a formidable ally. Uchiha Sasuke, member of the National Honor Society, president and salutatorian of the junior class, and star player on the varsity football team, had been chosen to leave Konoha High and transfer to Oto Academy. And he had accepted. His last day in Konoha was that last Friday, and as he stepped out of the school for the last time you could hear the entire school weeping behind him.

But who cares? Shikamaru and Ino were back together.

Sure, Sakura was bawling her eyes out, and Naruto had to keep biting his lip and wiping his eyes to keep from crying himself so he could look strong before Sakura, but you could tell he was torn up inside anyway. Neither of them had even shown up to school that day, they were just that torn up about it.

And apparently, all of the Sound Five had left Konoha with their asses kicked and their faces burning in embarrassment. The news of Choji and Neji's victories over their rivals had already spread across the school before Shikamaru and Temari had taken down Tayuya, but unknown to them, at the same time they were face to face with the flutist, Kiba and Lee were taking care of their own rivals. On the way to school, Kiba got rear-ended by Ukon and they both had to pull over to settle the matter. Ukon had a short fuse and quickly turned a simple exchange of car papers into a full-on fist fight, and beat Kiba up pretty bad, too. Luckily, Kankorou, who had been walking out of the grocery store whose parking lot they had pulled into, quickly broke up the fight and settled the matter in Kiba's favor. Ukon walked away with charges for the accident and the fist-fight.

On the other hand, Lee had, once again, been the first one back from the long training run for cross country and was walking around the school to cool down. He accidentally bumped into Kimimaro when he rounded one corner (quite forcefully, in fact). He had apologized profusely, but Kimimaro did not accept it, and threw a nasty insult at him before turning away. Lee wouldn't allow him to leave on such a rude note and stopped him from running. Long story short, a fight started, and Lee was losing badly. It was about that time Temari dropped Gaara off at the entrance they were in front of, and the solemn Sand transfer student was able to step in and stop the fight. Kimimaro instead just started attacking Gaara, but eventually his time was cut short by a rapid coughing fit and had to run inside to the Nurse. Gaara called it a stroke of luck, but Lee declared victory.

The last day of Sasuke's time in Konoha, Naruto finally confront him and told (or rather shouted) him how wrong it was that he was leaving, where he had accomplished so much for not only himself but for the school itself. Sasuke did not listened, and left without so much as another word. All that mattered to him was exceeding his brother.

So Konoha was left to its small victories and large loss. But as (almost) stated earlier, two teens weren't sad about this in the least. As the school went on mourning, Shikamaru and Ino just went along in the halls, holding hands and laughing with one another, without a care in the world.

Who needs an Uchiha when you have this happy couple?

However, there was still one more small problem. Just one more small obstacle that had to be taken care of.

Sai.

Even though Tayuya was long gone and Shikamaru and Ino was officially dating again, Sai was still determined to make Ino his. It didn't matter that she had rejected him a thousand times now, that she spat his name in disgust in his presence, or that Shikamaru sent unnumbered deadly glares in his direction at every moment, he still would not cease his actions. Ino could not shake him off any longer.

Shikamaru had no choice but to come up with a devious plan.

When they reached English that day, Shikamaru confidently approached Kakashi at his desk before the bell rang, leaving Ino in her desk. He had to do this fast, before Sai walked in.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hmm?" Kakashi looked up from the papers he was grading (Sakura had finally persuaded him to get those research papers taken care of, after it being nearly a month since they were turned in). "What is it?"

"I'm here on behalf of Sai," Shikamaru did his best to create fake sympathy that seemed at least mildly convincing, "You see, he caught this extremely contagious disease. Extremely. But he can't afford to miss school."

"So?"

"So he requests you seat him in the corner of the room, far enough from the class so he can't breath on anyone." He pointed at the corner of the room furthest from Ino and much closer to his own desk, but still a few feet away from any surrounding desks, "Just as a precaution."

Kakashi looked over to the corner, "Why doesn't he tell me this himself?"

"He's embarrassed, sir."

Kakashi sighed, "Whatever. Tell him to go ahead. It couldn't hurt anything."

Shikamaru smirked, "Thank you sir."

It was only a second later that Sai walked into the class and made a beeline for his desk behind Ino, before Kakashi shouted to him.

"Sai! Sorry to hear about you recent malady. Nothing to worry about, though. You've been moved to the back corner." Kakashi beamed and pointed across the room. Sai stared back, confused and bewildered, then immediately came to an epiphany and glared deeply at Shikamaru.

"You didn't want to make anyone sick, did you?" Shikamaru's smirk grew wider, "Just doing you a favor."

"…yes, Kakashi-sensei. Thank you." He growled, before turning on his heel and heading to his new desk. Ino laughed quietly in her seat.

"Nice one," she said to him as he passed her desk.

Shikamaru smiled, "Only a small change. He'll still bother you outside of class."

"But it's a step in the right direction, at least. I was getting incredibly tired of him tapping me on the back with his pen all the time."

"And things should only be getting better."

Day 71

"Just wait."

It was group project time in English. Everyone had been separated into four-person groups the day before and were assigned separate projects based on the latest book the were reading, The Catcher in the Rye. Despite Sai's denial of any disease possibly having evaded his immune system, Kakashi insisted that he was given a separate, single-man project so he wouldn't risk contaminating the health of his classmates. So while Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, and Sakura worked on deciphering the two most important sentences of the novel, Sai looked on at them maliciously, scribbling his two-thousand-word essay in gloom.

"What are we waiting for, exactly?"

Shikamaru only smiled smugly, "Just wait."

The three exchanged puzzled looks before shrugging. No one ever understood Shikamaru's plans and strategies until they had at least been halfway enacted. His words were too confusing (if he ever decided to use the energy to explain himself…). It was better to just observe.

Sai's frustration finally bubbled up enough that he shook in his seat madly, growling softly, and snapped his pencil in to in an angry vice grip. Shikamaru smirked and fished a plastic bottle out of his pocket; it was clear, with no label, and was full of questionable looking red pills. He handed the bottle to Sakura and whispered something in her ear. Sakura eyed him questionably before nodding and raising a hand.

"Kakashi-sensei!" She called. He looked up from his desk, a tad annoyed that she was bothering him in the middle of what was probably, in his mind, the best part of the novel he was currently reading. When he didn't move, just sat there curious, Sakura motioned her fingers for him to come over. He sighed, marked his place, and walked up to her.

"What is it?"

"It's time for Sai's medicine." She whispered, "See? He's getting really cranky. Side effect of the disease, you see, really sad. He's bad about keeping up with it, so his guardian Yamato asked me to watch it for him. You know Yamato well, right? He subs for you sometimes. And he wanted me to remind you to make sure he takes two. And watch him swallow them! He'll sometimes fake it."

Kakashi stared at Sakura for a moment, trying to push the truth out of her with his eyes. She smiled sheepishly, and when he decided she would say no more, he sighed and took the bottle, "Fine. But I'm having a talk with Yamato about this later."

Sakura, Ino, and Choji instantly shot anxious looks at Shikamaru, who just smiled smugly and suppressed a chuckle. Kakashi didn't notice this, thankfully, as he turned his back on the group and weaved through the maze of desks over to where Sai was seated in the corner. The quartet couldn't hear what he was saying over the murmurs of their classmates, but they got the gist of the story through the actions displayed. Kakashi calmly held the bottle out to Sai, who just stared at it in fear before glancing back up to Kakashi. Kakashi nudged it further at him, but Sai shook his head and refused. What was the point of taking medicine if he wasn't sick? Wasn't that dangerous, anyway? Kakashi didn't know that, however, and sighed as he opened the bottle and took out two pills, poking them close to Sai's mouth. When Sai squeezed his lips shut, Kakashi decided to force feed them to him.

Sai didn't stand a chance.

He gulped the red pills down fast, which made Kakashi beam in satisfaction as he closed the bottle again and returned back to the quartet. He silently passed it back off to Sakura before returning to his desk to resume his reading.

Ino narrowed her eyes, "What was that about?"

"Just wait," He repeated, glancing at Sai sideways, who was fidgeting in his seat nervously, "Give him time to let his… medicine kick in.. Class only just started."

Ino's eyes widened, "You didn't do anything to harm him, did you?"

Shikamaru smiled at her, but said nothing. His smile didn't seem to hide anything, it was just the same old lazy grin he gave her every day. She decided to trust him; as much as she hated Sai, she didn't want to do anything to harm him.

Surely enough, an hour into class Sai began to get spastic. He started to twitch and shake in his chair, he blinked his eyes frequently and eventually clutched his chest.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sai shouted in agony, "I think I'm having a heart attack!"

Kakashi didn't even looked up from his book, obviously not caring, "Sai, you just took your medication. Calm down."

"Then why is my heart beating erratically!?"

A concerned girl from the group sitting closest to Sai approached him and applied two fingers to his neck, feeling his pulse, "…your pulse is just fine, Sai."

"No, it isn't!" He smacked her away. The girl gave him a disgusted look before marching off to her post. "And I'm getting a headache! No… no I think it's a migraine!"

Kakashi looked up, annoyed, at Sai, then turned his head to Shikamaru and raised an eyebrow.

Shikamaru shrugged, "Told you he hated it."

Kakashi sighed and looked back to Sai, "If it's really that bad, go see the nurse."

"The nurse!? You should be calling me an ambulance!"

Kakashi sighed again, "Ino, would you please escort Sai to the nurse?"

"Uh…" Ino glanced at Shikamaru out of the corner of her eye. He nodded, smirking, signaling that it was okay and probably even amusing. "Yeah. I guess."

"Good. Get him out of here now please. I can't take his screaming anymore."

Ino obeyed, leaving her group and carefully making her way over to Sai's desk in the corner. She hesitated when she reached a hand for his arm, as his entire torso was shaking uncontrollably. He didn't even acknowledge, much less notice, her touch when she finally pulled him out of his seat and supported his weight with her arms. She maneuvered him through the desks and led him out of the class and to the nurse's office.

What has Shikamaru done?Ino thought, biting her lip as she walked Sai down the main hall. His state of being hadn't really changed at all with her around him, Even Sai doesn't deserve something this bad! Then again… even Shikamaru wouldn't do something this bad… She let out an audible growl in frustration. Sai didn't notice at all, Good lord, that boy is so confusing!

She grumbled the rest of the way down the hall, before shoving Sai into the Nurse's office to the right, "Nurse Shizune?"

"What is it?" She looked up from her desk impatiently, then took in Sai's state and raised both eyebrows, "What's wrong with him?"

"Um, well, I don't exactly-"

Sai finally surveyed his surroundings and stared at Shizune in pain, "I'm having a heart attack! Why won't anyone call an ambulance!?"

"Hun, if you were having a heart attack, you'd be screaming in much more pain than that. Actual pain. But I'll check on you anyway. Sit down." She pointed to the cot behind them and stood from her desk, adjusting the watch on her wrist. She made her way over to them and placed two fingers on Sai's neck, gazing at her watch. After a minute, she placed her hand on his forehead, then took it back and sighed.

"Sai, your pulse is normal and your temperature's fine. There's nothing wrong with you."

"He did something to me! I know he did!"

Shizune raised an eyebrow at Ino, who just shrugged.

"Well, if it'll make you feel any better, you can lie down here. I'll get you a bottle of water." She nodded to Ino, "And you go back to class."

"Don't have to tell me twice," She looked at Sai and grimaced, "Thanks." And with that, Ino instantly ran off to class.

"So what happened to Sai?" Sakura asked, bespectacled, as Ino took her place back in the English group.

"Nothing at all! It's so strange!" Ino turned her head to Shikamaru and glared, "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything." Shikamaru smirked in satisfaction, "It was all him."

"Then what the hell were those pills you gave him? That had to do something with it!"

"Oh, those?" Shikamaru's smirk grew wider, "Yeah, I suppose they had something to do with it. You see, that was just a bottle of really bad tasting candy. Got 'em at a joke shop nearby."

"What!?" Sakura and Ino both yelled in unison. Kakashi grumbled in the background, and they instantly lowered their voices.

"Then what was all that about?" Ino asked again, "I know he doesn't have a super-contagious disease."

"He doesn't. It was all in his head."

Choji snickered in approval of his friend's plan. He punched him in the shoulder, "Nice one, man."

Ino, still confused, blinked and dropped her jaw, "What!?"

Kakashi grumbled again in the background, and Sakura shoved her to be quiet.

"Ino, you know how overdoses in medicine, or even using it when it isn't needed, can be extremely bad for you health?" Shikamaru asked her.

"Yes."

"Well, I simply made him think he was taking medicine when he shouldn't. He got so paranoid that he thought something was happening to him." Shikamaru's smirk grew wider, and Sakura joined Choji in snickering, "It was all in his head. Sometimes you can imagine things much, much worse than they really are."

Ino's jaw dropped, "Shikamaru…"

"Yes?"

"You're a terribly person. But I love you."

She leaned over and kissed him straight on lips. Sakura groaned, "Oh come on you two! Get a room! We're still in the middle of class!"

"YOU FOUR!" Kakashi slammed his book on his desk and stared at them in anger, "I've had enough shenanigans out of you! Shut up before I give you all detention!"

The group could only laugh in reply.

When the bell finally rang for the end of that period, Sakura rolled up their poster project and shoved it in the back, and they all left for lunch together. They continued to laugh about the day's progress, Ino and Shikamaru walking together hand-in-hand as always down the main hall to the cafeteria.

However, the were stopped halfway there.

Sai stood before them, right smack dab in the middle of the hallway and completely in their way. He had regained all composure; it was as if the events of that second period English class that day had never happened at all.

With contempt, he looked Shikamaru straight in the eyes and spat, "You win."

"Hmm?"

"I won't bother Ino anymore. You win."

"Me? Win? I was never aware that this was a contest." Shikamaru laughed, "As far as I'm concerned, I won Ino over a long, long time ago."

Sai grumbled in response, infuriated. Ino rolled her eyes, "Oh please! Stop talking about me like I'm some trophy, you two! I'm a human being, and I can choose my own boyfriend!"

"Yes, but you already chose me." Shikamaru said, smiling, and kissed her forehead.

Sai growled deeply, "You sicken me."

"Don't worry, Sai." He patted his head and pushed him gently out of the way, "There are plenty of other fish in the sea."

The couple walked past him, laughing, as the walked towards the cafeteria again. Choji had trudged off already, wanting food terribly, and Sakura had spotted Naruto and followed him to lunch.

"Maybe he should go date Temari."

"Two old rivals? That would make for quite a deadly combination."

"Just a suggestion. They wouldn't mesh together well at all, anyway." Ino squeezed Shikamaru's hand when they entered the vast lunchroom, and he squeezed back. "You're amazing, Shikamaru."

"You as well."

YEAH. SO. UPDATES. YEAH. NICE THING, THOSE.

Mmmhhmmm.

And that officially closes the latest arc, now that both Tayuya and Sai are out of the picture. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY COME NEXT!?

Oh, I think you know. ….yes. You do. …you don't!? What?

Then you're just going to have to WAIT.

EVERY TIME YOU READ WITHOUT REVIEWING, MY MOM LIGHTS A CANDLE THAT TURNS OUT TO BE A BOMB AND IT BLOWS MY HOUSE UP.

Save my house pleaaaaaaaaase.

I rather like living in it.