Chapter 3
Summary: He felt annoyed. He finally had sex with Ino and he couldn't remember it.
Pairing: ShikaIno (Like it isn't obvious by this point).
If you don't like this pairing then you'd be something of an idiot if you read this anyway. If you want to flame then I'll go ahead and copy/paste this warning in reply. Please don't be silly.
Warning: Gratuitious smexiness (eventually). Multi-chapter.
Disclaimer: Oh good heavens, if only I owned it. Then I could fix certain things...
Thanks to my beta: The Laughing Fool.
Chapter Dedication: Troubled Clouds.
Shikamaru woke up that night to the sound of Ino's sudden gasp followed immediately by her footsteps heading to the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind her and the fan being slammed on.
"The hell?" Choji muttered thickly from across the room.
The shower turned on within seconds.
"It's three in the morning," Choji said.
There weren't any follow-up sounds of her getting in the shower. So it was pretty obvious.
"She's crying," Shikamaru said.
"Ah," Choji replied.
Shikamaru turned on his side, dozing lightly, knowing that he'd have to wake up when she finally came back out. The shower turned off about half an hour later and Ino came out shortly afterwards, moving quickly and silently back to her bed and shuffling under the covers.
"What's up?" Shikamaru asked tiredly.
Ino's voice was muffled by her pillow. Even so her voice still sounded slightly hoarse. "Nothing."
"Bad dream?" Choji said.
Ino sighed. "Uh-huh."
The three were quiet again. "Asuma or Ikeda?" Shikamaru asked.
Ino's breathing stilled. "It was nothing," she managed in an unquestionably wavering voice.
"Ikeda?" Choji asked gently.
The three of them despised killing. It rarely came up, in all honesty. Most of their missions involved escorting people or items, capturing enemies, or stealing. All ninjas were taught to kill only if directly ordered or if absolutely necessary.
Though everyone who worked as a ninja long enough ended up killing someone, it was inevitable.
Asuma had acknowledged that stark reality by training his team using genjutsus. All three had had to kill someone within the genjutsu. Asuma said that it would make them hesitate less when the real situation finally presented itself.
Shikamaru had first killed someone when he was fourteen, Ino when she was sixteen, and Choji when he was seventeen.
For the next two weeks after he had first killed someone, Shikamaru's father took to playing shogi with him constantly. Shikaku was the only person who could ever really challenge Shikamaru at the game and it was the only way to keep his mind occupied. Shikaku knew that. He could see his son spacing off during the games and watched the way his movements became jerky during his next move.
With Ino, killing made her physically ill. She'd been in an enemy's mind and forced the woman to walk off the edge of a cliff. The woman had been a talented ninja with many tricks so Ino hadn't vacated her body until there wasn't enough time for the woman to react. It had been terrifying, and when she returned to her own body, which Shikamaru had been holding onto, she broke out of his grasp to drop to her knees and retch.
Choji handled it the best of the three. He readily acknowledged that he was the simplest of his team and he often thought that he was the luckiest because of it. Killing was sometimes necessary. It was either a job handed down by somebody who had thought carefully and had the ability to authorize such contracts, or else it was a situation that an enemy had forced them into. But killing people made him cry big stupid tears that he'd quickly wipe off of his tattooed cheeks, tears that his teammates both discreetly ignored.
They'd managed to keep the body count extremely low. Ino had had to kill three people, Choji seven, and Shikamaru thirteen.
In situations where killing became inevitable, Shikamaru always did his best to manipulate the situation so that he would be the one to end up doing it.
The Ikeda incident had been a horribly mangled mission. They'd been hired to escort a sixteen-year-old boy, his mother, and his grandfather from Konoha to the land of Waves. It had been strange from the beginning, with three clients acting far more worried than the class of mission called for.
Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji all agreed that the clients had most likely lied about the level of danger. None of them were expecting the ambush in the form of the grandfather attacking his daughter and grandson. The appearance of other enemies heightened the suddenly considerable danger and their cell was split.
The woman ended up being killed. They'd had to kill a fair amount of the enemy ninjas before the rest retreated. The grandson had been badly wounded, infected with a poison. Ino had managed to get him away and she tried healing the poison, but it didn't work.
The poison was a vicious strain that was always fatal and that would start off painful and become excruciating. It was meant as a torture against those that had information. It usually took around three hours before it would stop the heart.
The boy had begged Ino to kill him, which she did by piercing his heart. She'd made it quick, but he'd been in pain before dying and he'd been gripping her hand in his sweaty and shaking fist.
That death hit Ino hard.
She'd made it back to Konoha, helped report their utterly failed mission, and then disappeared into her home for over two weeks. Shikamaru didn't see her again until he went to retrieve her for another mission.
He and Choji discovered that she had dreams about it from time to time. Not that she said anything, but they'd been on enough overnight missions to have picked up on the fact.
"Go to sleep," Ino said in a breaking voice.
Shikamaru gave a silent sigh, stood up and walked barefoot over to Ino's bed. "Move over," he said, barely giving her a chance before climbing onto the bed and putting an arm around her.
She'd lost the blanket at some point, but he was able to reach it and pull it back up. It was a sign of how upset she was that Ino didn't say anything.
"That one wasn't your fault," Shikamaru said, "Go back to sleep."
"Don't tell me what to do," Ino said tearfully into her pillow.
"You're going to be tired and cranky tomorrow and we're all stuck in the same room."
Ino was a person who had gotten used to a certain amount of sleep. She didn't need much, far less, actually, than what could be considered normal, but if she didn't get that amount she'd be somewhat cruel the next day.
"Shut up," she said into her pillow, muffling her voice, though it didn't hide the fact that she was lightly crying. "You go to sleep."
"You're troublesome," Shikamaru said.
"No I'm not," Ino said, voice heavily muffled by her pillow.
She had turned onto her stomach. He wasn't sure how she could breathe, but she seemed to be managing. He let his arm rest across her back.
"Yes you are."
"I am not troublesome," Ino said and there was now a definite tinge of irritation in her voice.
"You're awake at three in the morning, bugging Choji and me."
"I told you to go sleep," Ino said, her tone much sharper.
Good, she was almost irritated enough. Nothing brought Ino back to her usual self quite like getting angry. Taunting was good for her, she was far too defiant to give in.
Choji knew better than to join in. Anytime that he tried to openly taunt her, she'd instantly figure it out and would ignore it with a toss of her head. But Shikamaru was an expert at getting a rise out of her. And even if Choji used the same jibes with the same intonation he could never get the same spectacular results that Shikamaru did.
"Typical troublesome little girl," Shikamaru said, just barely keeping his smirk hidden.
Ino shrugged jerkily in an attempt to get his arm off her back. "What do you know? You're just a stupid little boy taking naps and playing games!"
Choji grinned. Not only was Ino feeling better, but that was also a great depiction of Shikamaru. He enjoyed these exchanges.
"And you're just a spoiled princess," Shikamaru said in a decidedly bored tone.
"Get off of my bed, you jerk!" Ino demanded, jamming her shoulder into his side so that only his quick reflexes got him to his feet in time.
She rose to the occasion. Every. Single. Time.
"Whatever," he said, crossing back to his bed and melting into it.
"Goodnight," Ino snapped, violently wrapping her blanket around herself.
"Night," Choji said pleasantly enough.
Everyone was asleep within ten minutes.
"Hey. Shikamaru."
No way. There was no way that she was up this early. The sunlight was still far too pale to be any later than eight a.m.
"Go away."
"Don't be rude," Ino said, poking his shoulder hard.
She was actually sitting on his bed. As though she had full permission to be there. Which she did not.
"Just wake up now and take a nap later," Choji said from across the room.
Shikamaru growled something incomprehensible at the traitor and did his best to suffocate himself. How the hell could Ino stay up so late and wake up so early in the mornings? Only sadists were morning people.
So it actually made sense that Ino would be a morning person.
"Hey," Ino said again, "Wake up."
"What?" Shikamaru snapped, finally sitting up and glaring with tired eyes.
Ino smiled at him. She looked bright and alert. "Let me braid your hair."
Shikamaru stared at her for a moment. "No."
"It'll look really good. Just let me do it."
"Are you joking? No."
"Let me braid your hair and I'll let you sleep another hour," Ino said with such a smirk.
Manipulative little weasel. Preying on his weaknesses.
"No."
Ino frowned at him with cold calculation before she thought to mask it with a pretty pout. "I wouldn't do anything that wouldn't look good," she said, "And you've let me put your hair up before and you seemed fine enough with that."
Shikamaru watched her impressive performance with his hand propping up his head. "No."
Ino's pout turned angrier and she gave him a quick grimace. "Fine. Do what you always do and it'll be as effective as it always is."
She stood up and they eyed each other with dislike. Then her expression suddenly brightened. "Hey Choji!"
"No."
Half an hour later found Shikamaru sitting at the table with a cup of coffee nearby while laying his head on his arms watching as Choji made their beds and Ino braided her own hair.
"There," she finally declared, standing up and showing off. "It looks great, doesn't it?"
The French braids were definitely pretty. On a girl.
"You look like you're fourteen," Shikamaru said dismissively.
"Jeez, just give me a compliment for once!" Ino exclaimed. "And I don't look like I'm fourteen. I had short hair when I was fourteen."
No, it was growing out by then.
Shikamaru frowned at himself once again at how unwelcome certain thoughts were. Why on earth should he remember how long Ino's hair was when she was fourteen?
I remember everything regardless. There's nothing unusual about knowing that.
Sasuke had been gone by that point, so it wasn't him that she was keeping her hair long for and that was why Shikamaru had finally been able to admit to himself that he liked long hair on girls. He'd been firmly against that idea beforehand.
"Hey, the breakfast buffet is open now!" Choji said excitedly, glancing at the clock.
Ino grabbed hold of his arm, "Take what you need now, because you're both coming shopping with me after breakfast."
Choji pulled his arm away and headed out the door. "I've got everything I need. See you downstairs!"
Ino frowned, sighed, and walked over to where he had a pristine pile of clothes and dug through it before finally locating a pair of pants and pulling a wallet out of the pocket. She added it to her own bag and then looked at Shikamaru who'd been idly watching her. "You're coming shopping too," she said.
He stood up and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, I know."
He followed Choji's route and Ino sighed again as she grabbed the hotel card that neither boy had bothered to take and then went to join them.
The markets were actually really good. Choji got interested immediately. He was always a bit secretive about a certain aspect of his life which is what had clued Shikamaru and Ino onto the fact that Choji had a sweetheart. What was really interesting, though, was the fact that he wouldn't tell them who it was, and even with Shikamaru's impressive observation skills and Ino's energetic curiosity and meddling, they both remained in the dark about who it was.
Choji liked to buy this mystery girl many different things. Ino had once told Shikamaru how proud of Choji she was. He'd taken all those messages from their romantic sources to heart, he bought all of the proper things that a doting romantic interest should, and he'd occasionally asked Ino's advice about what was appropriate and what wasn't.
"Plus Choji likes cleaning," Ino had said, reaching her conclusion, "That girl is damn lucky and she'd better not break his heart."
Shikamaru was cushioning his head while lying on the grass and watching the clouds in the sky. It was a good day for it. "You'd love to know who it is, wouldn't you?"
"Of course I would," Ino said, continuing her work on a chain of flowers. "But I'm not going to try and figure it out, he must have some sort of reason for not telling us. Though he better not wait forever, because I need to know eventually."
"Wow," Shikamaru commented, "You're not going to have a stake-out? I'm surprised."
He half-expected her get a bit worked up, but she gave a smile and tossed her flower chain on his chest. "See, you approve of me sometimes," she said and laid back on the ground, nestling until comfortable, "Wake me up when it's time to go," she murmured, shielding her face and closing her eyes.
He'd glanced over at her and looked back at the sky with a slight smile.
But the fact that they weren't allowed to know who Choji's lady-friend made it difficult to shop with him. And it was, admittedly, frustrating for Ino because she loved shopping for girly things, but she wasn't allowed to help Choji since it would mark the lady Choji liked if there was suddenly a female going around wearing things that Ino had picked out.
So Choji had splintered away from them, leaving Ino and Shikamaru to travel together.
It was actually a pleasant time. Ino had done a lot of her personal shopping the day before so she was actually interested in showing Shikamaru things that he was interested in, though that wasn't to say that something 'cuuuuuute!' wouldn't catch her eye, making her drag him off.
And it also wasn't to say that she didn't force him over to a jewelry stand and tease him endlessly about the different earrings he should buy. Though he literally didn't have the money (not that he would ever buy the flowery, frilly things that she kept pushing at him); Ino hadn't been lying about how much that hotel had cost.
"Okay, seriously, how about these," Ino said, holding up a pair that was almost a carbon copy of what he already had with just the slightest change in tint.
Shikamaru just raised an eyebrow.
"I'm going to buy it for you," Ino said decisively, "Though it's really more appropriate for boys to buy girls jewelry, but I'll make an exception."
"I'm not asking-" Shikamaru began.
Ino interrupted him with a wave of her hand. "Everyone likes gifts of jewelry," and then she was already paying in the time it took him to blink.
It was the only thing that she bought at that jewelry stand.
Then she kept buying things that she said were for Choji and things that she insisted were for her, but absolutely were not. He watched her buy a brown and green striped scarf (colors she virtually never wore, and without any hint of something 'girly'), he raised an eyebrow and Ino's response, after a pause, was a large, completely unabashed smile.
And after they left that particular shop and were walking again, he said, "You're buying me things."
"It's for my benefit," Ino said cheerfully, "I always have to see you dressed like that. You seriously need a new look."
No way that was true. The two of them, through pure coincidence, actually dressed fairly similarly.
"Stop buying me things," Shikamaru said.
"Don't tell me what to do."
"I'll go back to the hotel right now."
"Fine," Ino said in a manner that Shikamaru knew wasn't sincere.
"Ino," Shikamaru began with a sigh, but he was cut off once again.
"Hey guys," Choji said cheerfully.
"All finished?" Ino said.
"Yeah. Wow. That's a lot of stuff," Choji said, eyeing Ino's numerous bags, and the fair amount Shikamaru was holding, which surely belonged to Ino as well. "I'm not sure we're really going to be able to get all of our things back."
"It'll work out," Ino said dismissively.
"Hey! Here you are!"
Ino sighed in irritation and turned around. "Here I am," she said, "What do you want?"
Shikamaru and Choji turned as well and found the pretty guy from the night before. The guy was staring at Ino who was returning his gaze with a bored irritation. It was a complete switch from her previous interest.
"You left last night," the guy said.
"I did," Ino said impatiently.
The guy's expression was morphing into a glare as Ino continued her complete disinterest. "You seemed like you were ready for a good time last night."
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed and Choji frowned. There was a complete difference between the two of them taunting Ino and this guy taunting Ino.
"The fact that I left should have clued you in to the fact that I wasn't," Ino said.
"What the hell, babe? You thought you'd ditch me? Lead me on?"
They were gathering the attention of nearby people. Shikamaru watched the guy unpleasantly.
Ino's expression was disdainful, making it clear that the guy before her was the most pathetic thing she'd ever seen. "You're boring. And stupid. I figured that you'd rather me leave than laugh in your face."
Choji smiled. Ino was brilliantly mean to people that irritated her. She always handled her own affairs.
Plus she'd get mad if someone else intervened.
The guy's eyes widened. This was probably the first time someone had so shamelessly insulted him. "What, you wanted to ditch me in order to go back to this scrawny idiot," he said, gesturing towards Shikamaru, "and this loser fat-ass?" he said with a nod towards Choji.
Ino raised her hand to her forehead "Dammit."
"Son of a bitch," Shikamaru sighed.
"What did you say?" Choji demanded, dropping his bags.
"It's your turn," Ino said to Shikamaru.
"I called you a loser fat-ass," the guy taunted.
"This one's your fault," Shikamaru said to Ino.
"I took care of the last one. It's your turn," she retorted.
There was a larger crowd now. Pretty Boy smirked at Choji, clearly under the impression that he could take this out-of-shape, overweight boy. Choji, meanwhile, was glowering. Anyone in Konoha would have known what this meant, but Pretty Boy was utterly oblivious.
Shikamaru sighed. "Choji, wait."
Choji didn't seem to register his words. Ino gave Shikamaru a look meaning that she wasn't impressed with his effort and he needed to try harder.
"We aren't on a mission so we can actually get in trouble for this."
"He's just a stupid civilian," Choji said with eyes narrowed at Pretty Boy, whose smirk now seemed somewhat confused. "Konoha won't care."
"I'll have to heal him, Choji, and I really don't want to," Ino said.
"Then don't heal him," Choji said and charged.
Pretty Boy gasped as Shikamaru appeared instantly at Choji's side and gripped his arm tightly to hold him in place. Choji wrenched his arm out of Shikamaru's grasp and started stomping towards Pretty Boy. Shikamaru was instantly in front of him and Pretty Boy gaped. He couldn't see them move. He backed away quickly.
"Stop. Now," Shikamaru said.
In a fair fight, Shikamaru would win. But there were four problems. Number one; Choji was angry. Number two; Shikamaru hated fighting Choji outside of training grounds. Number three; a fight was certain to have major collateral damage. Number four; Pretty Boy really deserved a beating.
Choji glared at Shikamaru. "Traitor! Get out of the way!"
"Hey man," Pretty Boy said hesitantly from behind Shikamaru, "I d-didn't mean anything. Just saying some stuff, y'know."
"Screw you," Choji spat from over Shikamaru's shoulder. The guy's words did nothing to calm his rage, "Get out of the way now!"
The crowd shifted nervously. Ino sighed and glared at Pretty Boy. He caught her eye, his expression now frightened. Ino made a seal.
Shikamaru was distracted by the sound of something hitting the ground. Choji used the opportunity to break past him and slam his fist violently into Pretty Boy's face, causing him to fly backwards.
"Dammit Choji!" Pretty Boy said, standing up and spitting blood. "You need to work on your temper! And you're going to get us all in trouble and ruin our vacation!"
Choji dropped his fist. "Ino! You idiot, why'd you do that? That wasn't meant for you!"
Shikamaru was already over at Ino's limp body, checking the damage on her face. She'd also hit the ground pretty hard.
"Now you get out of his body so I can beat him to a pulp!" Choji demanded.
Pretty Boy folded his arms and glared at Choji. "You know you can't do that! Just pick something else to do to him instead. And shut up," he said, seemingly to himself, "You're such a whiny baby."
"Don't wear yourself out," Shikamaru said, "You're going to want to be able to heal this."
Pretty Boy touched the bloody bruise on his left eye and his glare intensified. "Dammit Choji!"
Choji scowled in return. "That wasn't meant for you! It was meant for that dumb-ass!"
Pretty Boy rested a hand on his hip in a decidedly feminine manner. "You can't beat up civilians!" he returned sharply.
Shikamaru sighed. Ino challenging Choji with Pretty Boy's body was not likely to help decrease the situation. Choji certainly didn't look at all settled down. He and Pretty Boy were sharing very dark death glares.
Shikamaru sighed again. Pretty Boy glanced over at him. "You can help out if you want. Instead of just letting me do all the work."
"Choji, you can't hurt civilians," Shikamaru said flatly. "Or Ino."
"Yes I can," Choji responded.
Pretty Boy now had both hands on his hips to accompany the glare on his face. Choji scowled in return. "How'd you like it if he called you fat?" he challenged.
Pretty Boy's eyes widened.
"Choji, stop it now!" Shikamaru said with more force. He did not want to deal with two rage-filled teammates. One was more than enough.
Pretty Boy's expression turned murderous. And then, suddenly, his eyes filled with tears. Choji looked startled and then worried. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.
How. Troublesome.
Ino had pulled this hundreds of times back when they were training with Asuma. Her eyes would fill with tears, her lower lip would start trembling, and then she'd lower her head to her hands and cry like the most heartbroken soul that had ever lived. It was actually a brilliant strategy because Asuma had no clue how to deal with a sobbing little girl. And Choji and Shikamaru weren't much better. So what usually happened was that Asuma would end up sitting next to her and would pat her back awkwardly and then basically cater to whatever she wanted in order to get her to stop crying.
Such as when Choji had questioned her diet. After she'd burst into tears, Asuma had turned around from where he'd been walking ahead of them with a startled expression on his face. Then he'd gotten a kind of horrified expression on his face and had reluctantly headed back to try to take care of the situation. And when he'd asked her what she was crying about, she'd managed to wail, "Choji c-called me fat!"
Choji, of course, had been appalled. "I did not! I just said that she didn't really diet!"
Ino had started crying even louder and Asuma flinched. Then he'd sat beside her. "There, there, Princess," he said in soothing and awkward tone. "You're one of the scrawniest kids I've seen. You aren't fat."
It finally ended after about twenty minutes with Asuma saying, "And Choji's sorry that he said you weren't on a diet."
"Because I am on a diet," Ino had sniffed petulantly.
Choji had scowled and Shikamaru had rolled his eyes. Asuma was a great guy in every other respect. But emotional little girls were not his forte.
"Of course you are, Princess."
And that had been the beginning of this tradition.
But the most obnoxious part was that, when it came to her appearance, Ino wasn't fake crying in order to get her way.
Choji seemed to have suddenly remembered that fact. Not to mention the fact that he, like Asuma, was a sucker for catering to crying girls. Even Shikamaru was uncomfortable.
"Listen, I'm not saying you are fat," Choji said anxiously, "I was just…"
"Hisao?"
A girl was scurrying quickly up the street towards Pretty Boy. "Hisao, why are you crying?" she exclaimed grabbing his arm.
Pretty Boy, Shikamaru, and Choji all looked at her. The slightest expression of shrewdness passed through Pretty Boy's eyes. The girl gasped. "What happened to your face? Oh, I've been so worried about you ever since you disappeared last night, babe, and then you didn't come back to the apartment! What happened?"
Ino opened her eyes and sat up. Shikamaru glanced at her with interest. She stood up quickly before the girl spotted her on the ground and then she strode towards Pretty Boy, seeming to not notice the other girl.
"Oh, Hisao!" she exclaimed in a particularly syrupy tone, "I'm so glad to see you again! I'm so sorry I had to leave before you woke up this morning," she smirked at him, "but I promise I'll make it up to you tonight."
Then she leaned into the stunned boy and kissed him.
Choji's eyes widened. Shikamaru's narrowed. The girl gasped and grabbed Ino's wrist, yanking her back. Ino let her. "What do you think you're doing?" the girl shouted at her.
Ino looked at her and then glanced back at Hisao. "Honey, who is this?"
The girl shrieked and marched up to the sputtering boy and slapped him furiously, her open palm landing directly on top of the large bruise already coloring his cheek. "But- but Hanae!" he cried, "Wait! I-"
Ino watched in satisfaction as the girl stormed away and Hisao followed quickly after her. Ino walked back to the other two and exchanged a high-five with a grinning Choji.
"I bet you he has to sleep at a friend's tonight," Ino said.
Choji nodded with glee.
They were kind of a vindictive duo.
Ino glanced over and saw Shikamaru's expression. "Oh come on," she said, "He deserved it."
"Do you really go around kissing strangers?" Shikamaru said distastefully.
Ino smirked a Cheshire's smirk. "Are you sure you're not just jealous?" she said leaning in to him, just an inch from his face, with lowered eyelids, shockingly seductive.
Shikamaru's eyes widened and he jerked backwards. "What the hell?"
Ino leaned back and turned around with a toss of her head, laughing. "Jeez, lighten up," she said and flounced off, leaving Shikamaru and Choji to trail after her, Choji giving Shikamaru a strange look out of the corner of his eye.
A/N
Hey everyone! This chapter took longer to get out because of an eight-page rewrite and rudimentary health problems.
Everyone has spoiled me again! I LOVE reading your reviews and I am thrilled that everyone likes the Team 10 dynamic. There is something of a shortage of fics out there about them, so I'm glad that I can help out.
Recap: Just to avoid any possible confusion. In that fight scene with those four, Ino used her body-switch technique. Therefore Pretty Boy=Ino. Until she sat up and headed for the social kill. Then she's back.
Interesting Note: Troubled Cloud brought up Ino's intelligence in their review, so I thought I'd share an awesome fact. According to the stats page, Ino graduated at the top of their class along with Sasuke. They tied for first. I always thought that was awesome. Too bad Kishimoto doesn't seem that interested.
Thank you again for reviewing! I appreciate it so much!
-CR