Authors Note: So here is the next chapter. My grandparents got me a new laptop for my birthday, since it is new, I will lose my old laptop for a few days. The person who fixes our computers has to put all my documents and programs, from this laptop, on the new one. This means I will be without a computer for about a week. Since my day has been brightened by *tealightbirdy99* (who gave my story its first comment), I have decided to hurry and write the new chapter. This also means that the cliffhanger will be no more, everyone cheers. So enjoy!

P.S.- I don't own Naruto. If I did, you could just watch this in the anime or manga. Nevertheless, I am just writing this story. =)

What a Life

The air was warm at the beginning of August. It was not too hot, but also not to cold. The sun was setting behind the trees, giving the entire sky a pinkish color. It was really the perfect end to a nice day. "Mom can't we go outside now, we have been in the house forever!" I whined as my parents looked at me. I was on my tippy toes and I could just see over the tall dining room table they sat at. "Well Yoshiro, should we move outside and relax after dinner?" my mom asked. "I guess so, since we have been inside forever, it might be nice to see the sun after all this time."

"Freedom!" I yelled as the door of the house was opened and I ran into the back yard. The grass tickled my feet as I moved across it and the warm air surrounded me. After I took a breath I announced to no one in particular, "There is so much more air outside then in the house." "Duh." The boy who was walking behind me smartly said. He sat down and looked up at the clouds.

"Ino, do not walk to far from the house I want you to stay where we can see you." My mother yelled from the back porch of the Nara's house. 'I am 6 years old, when I am going to be able to do anything.' "Yeah Ino, just sit down and look at the clouds. Your mommy says not to run away." Shikamaru laughed and continued to stare at the sky.

"Oh Shikamaru be quiet. What is she going to do when school starts soon? Is she going to walk me into class, sit with me, and take notes for me? What about when we start to throw kunai, is she going to make sure the edges are not too pointy so I won't poke my eye out. She is so over protective!" I complained.

Shikamaru glanced at me and grinned, "You know you could probably get her to sit and take notes for you, ha that would make class less troublesome." I lay down in the grass beside him and stared at the sky, I was not really focusing on it though. "School has not even started yet and you already think it is troublesome?" I asked. "Yeah it is. We will have to learn things that our fathers could have been teaching us. I asked my dad to teach me how to use chakra in a jutsu and he laughed and said wait until school starts. He is so troublesome."

"Is that right son, I am troublesome?" We both propelled into a sitting position and saw not just Mr. Nara, but also my father standing a few feet from us. "Well see, if you would have taught me how to sense chakra, I would have known you were standing there," Shikamaru said. Mr. Nara and my father laughed.

"Before I can teach you how to use chakra in a jutsu, you have to know what it is and how to use it in simpler ways first. You will learn all this in school next month." Both turned and walked farther into the backyard. They shifted into fighting stances and started to spar. "One day I will be able to spar with someone and win," I mostly said to myself. "Ha ha you are going to win, yeah right, you could spar your way out of a paper bag." Shikamaru laughed.

To prove him wrong I moved into a stance similar to my fathers and waited for him to move too. "Oh no, I am not going to fight a girl. Fighting a girl will get me in trouble, which is troublesome." He turned to walk away. "If you are scared Shikamaru, just say so, I completely understand. If I were you, I would be scared to fight me too. He he chicken! " I said mockingly. He stopped walking and stood still for a second. When he turned around, I could see anger clouding his face.

Shikamaru was mad. Really it was a rare thing to see him mad, getting mad was too troublesome. I was not scared of him. I wanted to fight and now he would fight me. He started to walk towards me and his hands were in fists. I leaned back and lunged at him knocking him down. We rolled around on the ground long enough for me to realize that I was also mad. He pinned me to the ground and it looked as if he had won.

I started to scratch and hit him. His arm had scratches on it and his hair had fallen out of the ponytail. I was not in much better shape. I rolled one last time and ended up pinning him on the ground. "All I wanted to do was spar and you decided to fight me seriously. Now I have bruises, and cuts, and my clothes are a mess." The anger faded away as I yelled at him. Tears, which I could not seem to stop, welled up in my eyes. I hovered over him and both of us just stared at each other. In between the anger and tears, neither of us noticed our parents running towards us.

I could feel his breath hit may neck as I hovered over him. Although my eyes were stuck on Mrs. Nara in the doorway, I knew Shikamaru was staring at me. I could feel his eyes burning my face. I turned my head and stared at him. For the life of me, I could not remember what I was mad about. His eyes stared into mine and I could feel the blush spread across my face.

Quickly, I jumped up moved to the doorway. Although I could feel Shikamarus' eyes still staring at me. As I entered the hallway, I saw Mrs. Nara shift her gaze from Shikamaru to me, then turn to walk toward the kitchen. "Wow I guess I will have to open a few windows in the house, both of you have a blush spread across you face. It must really be hot in here." I could almost hear her giggle during the last part of the sentence.

While awaiting Mrs. Nara's instructions I paced around the kitchen and tried to figure out what just happened. 'Okay Ino, let's just go through this slowly, one-step at a time, and try to figure out what the hell went wrong. First Shikamaru pissed me off, then I attacked him, then I yelled at him, then Mrs. Nara interrupted us. During that time, I felt a strong attraction to not only my teammate, but also my best friend, and the guy I have grown up with. I wanted to kiss Shikamaru. Ding, ding, ding we have an answer to the, what went wrong, question. What is the prize? I large plate of awkward, with a side of my life is over!'

'Okay, okay Ino breath, this is not that time to lose my mind. I just have to get through dinner tonight, then I won't have to see Shikamaru until Monday!' "Wow a whole two days" I said sarcastically and shuffled into the kitchen. "What is it that you needed help with Mrs. Nara?" My eyes were glued to the floor, on account that I was too scared to look her in the eyes.

"Well Ino, I was hoping that you could set the table for me. It turns out that your cousin is feeling much better and your mother can make it to dinner. A few minutes ago, I also received word that Shikaku and Inoichi are home from their mission and will also be attending dinner. So please set the table for six people. You know where the plates, cups, and chopsticks are right?" She asked. "Yes, I will get to that now." I replied.

After a little searching, I found the plates, cups, and chopsticks in the dining room. I actually did not know where they were, but I could not hold a conversation with her longer then I needed to. I set the table, knowing Mrs. Nara would sit Shikamaru and me together, and spaced all the plates far away from each other.

'Great not only do I have dinner with Shikamaru, but I also have to eat at the same table with my mom and dad and his parents. How am I going to pull this off?' My thoughts were broken off by the front door opening and voices traveling into the house. "Yoshiro I ran into Inoichi and Shikaku on my way here. How can I help with dinner?" My mom walked in the dining room and smiled at me.

"I don't need any help, but you have to hear what happened earlier, come on in the kitchen." 'That's it my life is over in 5…4…3…2…1…' "WHAT!" My mom yelled and raced out to whisper to my dad, who stared at me in shock. "Ino, would you go get Shikamaru and tell him dinner is ready." Someone asked, but I was too busy trying to find an escape route to find out who it was.

I stood in front of the door and after what felt like an eternity, finally knocked lightly, hoping he would not hear me, or possibly be asleep. I had no such luck. He opened the door and stared at me. "Dinner is ready and everyone is here. Our dads are home from the mission and my mother decided to show up." Happy that I had completed my task I turned to leave.

I felt his hand on my shoulder and all of a sudden, I was pulled into his room. He sat with me on the edge of the bed and with looked at me questioningly. "What is wrong Ino? You always have something to say, and now you can't even talk to me. Is it about earlier?"

I looked at him as if he were stupid. "Of course it is about earlier, your mom told my mom, who told my dad, who looked as if his world just blew up. By now, your dad knows and how am I going to make it through dinner with all of this. Our moms are going to sit at the table and giggle the entire time, your dad will probably make smart comments, that will embarrass me, and my dad has lost all faith in me. It is like I ruined his happy little vision of me and now I am a horrible daughter. We did not even do anything." I halfway yelled the last part, hoping they all heard me.

"Your right Ino, nothing happened. We have been best friends for a long time. I annoyed you, we ended up fighting, like always, and somehow things got weird and hormones took over. That's all it was, hormones. The same thing would happen to us, if it happened with two different people. After today, I will still annoy you, you will still get mad at me, and life will move on." Shikamaru said.

"Thanks Shikamaru that is what I needed. Let's go out there and set them straight." With that said, I marched out and sat down at the table. Dinner went exactly as I thought it would. Smart comments and giggles were heard throughout meal and my father stayed silent. I held my head high and made it through dinner without looking anyone in the eyes.

After dinner, I sat with Shikamaru in his room. "Well that was sufficiently awkward." He said, looking at the ceiling. "Wasn't it, I think I broke my father's heart." I said sadly. He quickly replied "Ino just give him a few days to deal with the fact that you are getting older. You know you have always been his baby. If he had his way you would still be walking down the streets holding his hand, so you do not slip and fall." I giggled at his comment.

I moved over to him and he sat up to look at me. "You and I both know that he will never be able to deal with the fact that I am growing up. But I am, and one of these days I will have a boyfriend and he will have to deal with that too." Shikamaru put his hand on his face and said, "I pity the guy that becomes your boyfriend." I glared at him and attempted to hit him lightly on the head. However, he grabbed my hand and glared back at me. Only to, once again, have our faces by inches apart.

At that time, my father opened that door and stared at us. I ripped my hand from Shikamarus' and moved back a good three feet, for good measure. He looked at Shikamaru as if he wanted to kill him and said through his teeth, "Ino, it is time to go home. Say goodbye to Shikamaru." I glanced at Shikamaru and said, "Bye Shika, see you Monday for training." My father flinched at the last part.

The weekend went bye relatively fast. I spent most of the time avoiding my father. I worked in the store, and stayed in my room. My mother even let me eat in my room, because she pitied the fact that my father was having a hard time getting over all of this.

By the time Monday came, I was grateful to get out of the house. When I met the rest of the team at the training grounds, it was as if nothing happened between Shikamaru and me. He did not ask about my father and I did not talk about him. We threw kunai, and worked on jutsu all day. Mr. Nara even showed up to give us some tips on how our fathers combine their jutsu and work together.

At the end of the day, Asuma-sensei told Chouji, Shikamaru, and I that we did a good job today. He also knew we were tired. Therefore, he gave us all advice "Go home and get some sleep, because tomorrow will be the same, if not worse." I struggled to get my legs to move, but finally started to run home. Somehow, I found the energy to take a quick shower, eat some rice, and drag myself to bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell fast asleep.

Authors Note: How was the chapter? I believe this a may be a tad shorter that the second one, but only by like 200 words. If you liked it…Review Please! I know I updated that really close to the last chapter, but don't expect that with the next chapter. In a few days, I will be computerless and I will not be able to write at all. Until the next chapter…

Blondegirl09