Hi everyone. I wanted to thank you all for your kind words, your opinion, and your encouragements. To thank you all, I decided to do a double update this week, so enjoy!

Also thank you Airheadninja for what you said you're right. If I love this story the way I do than I should just keep writing it no matter what. Thank you for making me realize that!

Additionally, I have changed this story's rating to an M. You all know what that means :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto but I do well damn own this awesome story :D

The date last night had been great. Although he had brought her to an exotic restaurant, which wasn't in her taste, he had treated her like the most precious thing in the world. He had almost managed to make her forget about her fight with Shikamaru. When he brought her back to her house last night, he had kissed her on the forehead when she admitted that she did not want to rush things. He had not reacted negatively.

This morning, when she opened the door to leave for her training, she found Daichi standing in front of the door, with his fist up, about to knock.

"Oh, good morning! What are you doing here?"

"I was here to see how you were doing. Going somewhere?" he said with a bright smile.

"Yeah, I need to go to training today. My team is meeting up in about an hour."

"Great, I'll walk with you!"

She opened her mouth to say something but closed it without saying a word, knowing full well that when the boy put his mind to something, he wasn't going to take no as an answer. On their way to the usual training ground, Daichi asked Sora how much she loved last night. She, of course, told him with a big smile that it had been great as a first date. It was definitely something that she would never forget. Just before reaching their destination, he asked her if she wanted to go out with him tomorrow and after hesitating a few minutes, she finally accepted. He was about to tell her how happy he was when, from behind them, they heard:

"Well hello, handsome!"

Turning around, they both saw Ino walking behind them.

"Ah, Daichi. This is Ino. She's one of my teammates."

"Nice to meet you!" he said, stretching his hand in front of him.

"Oh, trust me. It's a pleasure to meet you too!" she said as she shook his hand, obviously flirting.

"Well, I need to head off to work darling," he told Sora. "See you at your place tomorrow at six?"

"Yeah, I'll wait for you then," the girl answered.

"Perfect, have a good day!" Daichi then leaned in and kissed her forehead just like he had done the night before.

While he was leaving, Ino started snickering as she looked at Sora who had turned a dark tone of red.

"Quite a guy you found there," the blonde girl told her friend.

"Yeah, he's really nice…" she answered as they walked in the training ground.

"I meant his physical silly! Anyways, Sakura is throwing a small girl party tonight. You need to come!"

Sora laughed lightly. "I'm guessing that you won't take 'no' as an answer?"

"You understood perfectly!" chimed Ino.

"Then, girl party it is tonight."

"Attagirl!"

As they got closer to their meeting spot, they noticed that everyone else was already there. Knowing that they were still out of hearing distance, Ino turned to Sora and asked:

"Are you going to be ok?"

"Huh?" Sora looked at her in confusion.

"I mean about Shikamaru. Choji told me that you two fought yesterday. Do I need to settle him back into his place?"

An expression of sadness washed over the black hair girl's face. As much as Ino could be annoying, as much as she could be a great friend. But Sora hadn't thought about Shikamaru yet today. She bit her lip.

"No… I'm hoping that a good night's sleep got him feeling better," she said, not too convinced.

And she was right not to be convinced. When the two girls met up with the team, Shikamaru didn't bother to greet her, even less look at her. Asuma scratched his head as he watched his team start doing the exercises he had given them. His team's dynamic was crumbling down. It was obvious that Choji and Ino didn't know how to act. Although the blonde seemed ready to defend the girl, both her and Shikamaru's best friend did not want to take any sides.

By the end of the training, the situation had not gotten any better. It did not help that Ino's curiosity had taken the best of the girl, who would ask tons of questions on Daichi. When they were done, Shikamaru seemed clearly irritated about being there and tried to leave without saying a thing but Choji was faster.

"Hey! Why don't we go eat lunch together? We deserve it!" he offered as an attempt to help the two.

"Yeah, great idea Choji," answered Asuma. "Lunch's on me since I'm leaving for a mission tonight!"

"Okay! I should have enough time before I need to go back to the flower shop!" cheered on Ino.

"No thanks. Go without me," said Shikamaru without offering any kind of excuse.

It made Sora feel horrible. She felt like it was her fault if the team was falling apart. As she took a step toward the boy, who was already leaving, Ino rested her hand on her shoulder. Looking at her blonde friend, she saw her shake her head in silence.

At the restaurant, Sora had lost her appetite. Playing with her food, she started regretting about taking the offer for last night's date. She did want to hurt Shikamaru but never thought about the consequences.

"Whatever's his problem, he'll get over it," said Choji seeing her not eating her plate.

"What is wrong with him, anyways?" asked Ino.

As they didn't know the answer, Asuma, Choji, and Ino looked at Sora, hoping she would. Seeing that the attention was all on her, she felt trapped and decided that there was no way of lying.

"All I know is that he doesn't like Daichi," she offered as an explanation.

"Daichi?" asked her sensei.

"Her new boyfriend!" explained Ino with a huge smile.

"Oh, you're going out with someone?" asked Choji.

Sora blushed seeing her team's enthusiastic reaction. She had not yet thought of Daichi as her boyfriend yet but she didn't know what they were either.

"Yeah, he asked me out yesterday and really insisted on me accepting…" she told the boy sitting in front of her.

The boy then grew thoughtful. He thought about Shikamaru's reaction to Sora's new boyfriend. Had they already met before? Was that the reason that his best friend was reacting like this? Ino, on the other hand, followed a different train of thoughts. Staring at the girl, she wondered if Shikamaru…

"Why the intense staring?" asked Sora who brought the two back to reality.

"Just thinking!" they both said at the same time.

Sora looked at both of them, feeling awkward. She had not thought that today's lunch would revolve around her. Deciding that it was time to change the subject, she decided to question her sensei about his new mission.

The day zoomed by too fast. First thing Sora knew, Ino was already dragging her to Sakura's place. When the pink hair girl opened the door, Sora noticed all the people that were already there.

"Ino… I thought you said that this was going to be a small girl party," Sora said, emphasizing the words "small girl", as she stared at her friend.

"Oh, did I? I must have forgotten to mention that Sakura changed her plans! Now let's go!"

"But I didn't…" started the pink hair girl but stopped when she realize that her best friend was already gone inside.

Sora stood unsure in the doorway. Seeing her hesitation, Sakura pushed her lightly inside while saying:

"This might not be a girl party but I did think about creating a girl only section." Sakura then pointed toward the room she was talking about.

Once inside, Sora looked nervously around. She could see a lot of her friends, including Choji, but not Shikamaru. She was about to ask her teammate if the one she feared was here but opted not to. She felt really stupid fearing her friend so much.

Walking around and greeting everyone eventually led her upstairs. As the party progressed, she felt more and more suffocated. Automatically she had aimed for the roof where she had the habit of taking some fresh air during parties. It was one of the few things that made her resist the urge of just running away. When she found the window she was looking for, she opened it up and sat on the edge. As she was about to flip her legs over, she froze. There, lying on the roof, was Shikamaru staring up at the now starry night. Sora slapped herself mentally. Of course, the one who had showed her a way out during parties was him.

"Roof is busy," the boy said without bothering to look at who was at the window.

"Really? Such a big roof all to yourself?" she asked mockingly.

The boy closed his eyes. He should have known it would be her.

"Are you really going to keep giving me the cold shoulder?" she had the courage to say.

He, once again, didn't answer. He had a lot of anger boiling inside him and was hoping that she would go away.

"Coward," she mumbled as she started heading back in as she could see clearly that this was going nowhere.

"Humph. I'm a coward because I'm angry?" he asked with his eyes now open, clearly insulted.

"No, you're a coward for not wanting to talk it out," she said staring back at him.

"Fine. Next time you lock yourself in your house, I won't bother to help."

"I never asked you to help!" she shouted.

"Yet, I did!"

"And what do you want from me?! To praise you? Shower you with gifts?! To act like no one else exists? Is that why you're so upset that I met Daichi? Because I'm not spending all my time with you?" she yelled out as tears started forming in the corner of her eyes.

Shikamaru didn't answer. Not because he didn't want to but because he didn't know what to say. He started to see what effect his jealousy was having on her and he didn't know what to do anymore. Closing his eyes, he pinched the bridge of his nose trying to decide what to do. He didn't like hurting her. By the time he opened his eyes again, the girl was gone.

Going down the stairs as fast as she could, Sora located the door but was stopped by someone.

"Sora? Are you ok?" said Ino.

"No! I mean yes! But I need to go now," she answered in distress.

Putting both hands firmly on her shoulders, Ino looked into her eyes.

"You're not doing okay and being alone doesn't always help." She then took Sora by her right hand pulled her toward a room that Sakura had shown earlier. "Come on, you need some girl time. We'll make you feel better!"

"Ino.. I don't think..." started Sora but didn't finish as they were already at the room.

"Go in," Ino said, pushing her friend gently.

Walking inside the room, Sora found a very small group of girls consisting of Sakura, Hinata, and Ten Ten. Quietly, the girl sat down amongst them. Together, they started talking about anything and everything. They even started gossiping about others which eventually led Sora to giggle a bit at the crazy theories that the others would make around her. Eventually, the conversation died down slowly as they all started eating food Sakura had just gotten for them. After a while, Ino decided that she needed to check something.

"Sora?"

"Hm?" the girl answered with her mouth full.

"When did you meet Daichi?"

"Oh, just a couple of days ago. I literally ran into him."

"So... You didn't know him before then?"

"No..." carefully answered Sora, sensing that there was something Ino was trying to figure out.

As she had guessed, the blonde girl became thoughtful.

"What are you thinking?"

But her question was left unanswered as Ino suddenly bombarded her with more questions. "How was your date again last night?"

"It was nice?"

"Where did you go?"

"To that little exotic place near the grill restaurant we go to all the time."

"Did you like the food?"

"It was... okay."

"And he walked you back home?"

"Yes."

"What did you talk about?"

"Well, he talked about his work."

"Did he have an arm around you?"

"Yes."

"Did you like it?"

"Well it was awkward..."

"Did he kiss you?"

"Well on my forehead..." answered the girl, growing more and more uncomfortable and irritated.

"Why not on the lips?"

"Because I told him I wasn't feeling comfortable with how fast things were moving. Can we stop the interrogation?"

Ino smiled brightly. "No worries, I'm done! I'll be right back!" The girl then left the room.

Sora looked at Sakura but even she didn't understand her best friend's intention.

Outside the room, Ino looked through the crowd for Shikamaru but only found Choji.

"Where is Shikamaru?" she asked urgently.

"Uh, well he just left a few minutes ago but..."

Choji didn't finish seeing the girl had already run off. Outside Sakura's house, Ino dashed in the direction of the boy's house. Thankfully, a few minutes later, she located him right in front of his house.

"Shikamaru, wait up!"

The boy stopped. When he turned around to look at who called him out, the girl noticed how horrible he looked.

"I need to ask you something!"

"If it's about Sora, then forget it," he said already turning towards his house.

"Wait! It is but I'm just curious about something."

"What?" he asked clearly irritated.

"What kind of food does Sora like?"

"Simple food. Preferably homemade."

"And exotic?"

"No. Definitely hates it."

"And when you walk, what does she like to talk about?"

"Nothing. She prefers to enjoy her surrounding."

"Does she like to be touched?"

"Not really. She likes her independency."

"And when she says no or says she's not ready about something, does she like to be forced regardless?"

"No. She likes going to her own speed." The boy sighed. "Why are you bombarding me with all these questions?"

Ino's smile grew wide. "I know you like her," she bluntly declared.

She first saw a surprised expression on his face which quickly turned into a frown.

"Great. Now you can go gossip to Sakura and the others."

"Nah. Your secret's safe with me."

Shikamaru let out another sigh. "What are you up to?"

"Oh, just going to sabotage Sora's relationship," she said already thoughtful.

"No!" he almost shouted.

She looked at him in surprise.

"She doesn't know about how I feel and doesn't need to. If that guy makes her happy, then let him have her. She deserves to be happy..." he explained.

"Heh. Trust me, Shikamaru. He doesn't make her all that happy. Heck, from what I see, he doesn't even bother with making sure she likes what he's doing. Right now, they're both blind about it but they're relationship is already doomed."

Shikamaru scratched his head at the girl's logic.

"How can you know that?"

With a wide smile, Ino tapped her nose with a finger. "Instinct. And I have plenty of it."

"Don't do anything Ino, please."

"Sorry, it's for both her's and your own good!"

Helplessly, the boy watched his friend turn around and walk away. It was crystal clear that she was already planning something.

And this is the end of this long chapter. Actually, hope you all like long chapters because I've come to realize that they are all generally very long!

Share the love, write a review! Thank you all for reading!