Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Ino wanted to go to Ichiraku's as soon as she could. After training, she ran over to Sakura's house, hoping she'd join her, since it'd be easier to eat there with a mutual contact. She rang the doorbell, and Sakura's mother, Mebuki, answered the door.

"Hey sweetie," she greeted.

"Hi, Mrs. Haruno," Ino returned. "I was wondering if Sakura was home?"

"Ino, I've told you before: just call me Mebuki. And, you just missed her. She was assigned to a mission just an hour ago."

"Shucks."

"Would you like to come in for tea?"

She thought for a moment. She wasn't brave enough to go by herself, so she didn't have anything to do. She decided she would ask one of the others to go with her for lunch.

"Yeah, I'd love to."

Mebuki moved to the side, inviting Ino into her home. Ino had been here many times, so Mebuki told her to make herself comfortable and that she'd be right back. Ino took a seat at the dining table, and busied herself examining the tablecloth.

Mebuki came back with a bag of tea leaves, and put a kettle on the stove.

"How are things with you and your family?" she asked Ino.

"Things are great; the flower shop is running smoothly, and I was accepted into the Torture and Interrogation Corps."

"Wow, that's great! Your father would have been so proud," she said dejectedly. They both took a moment of silence to think about the late Inoichi, and Mebuki tried to lighten the mood by asking about boys.

"Well, I don't have anyone I have my eye on, but if someone happens to catch my attention, I won't be against it." Ino lied. Mebuki was just as intelligent as her daughter and saw right through it.

"Don't lie to me, Ino." she said with a smirk.

Ino's smile dropped and she sighed heavily. "I guess it was useless to try and hide it," she said, garnering a laugh from her friend's mother.

"So who is it, darling?"

"Promise you won't laugh?"

Mebuki seemed a bit offended, but it was lighthearted. "Why would I laugh?"

"It's Naruto."

She chuckled, and promptly stopped once she caught the look on Ino's face. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just found it amusing because you and Sakura used to hate him."

"Yeah, I regret that." Ino said sadly. "I let other people's opinions of him influence my own. But I'm not sure my decision would've been much different: I did find him pretty annoying." Mebuki snickered.

"Well I certainly don't blame you for falling for him. In fact I had been trying to push Sakura to give him a chance, since he doesn't seem to be over her. I certainly like the situation more now that I know you like him." Mebuki noticed that Ino's expression dropped a little, and assured her that she wouldn't try and push Sakura anymore.

"Last night, the girls suggested that I try ramen, since he's always raving about it. I actually came here today to see if Sakura would come with me since she already knows the owners of the stand." Ino said.

"That's a good idea. Maybe that could be your ticket into his heart." Mebuki said. She sat down across from Ino. "I take it that since you won't simply start talking to him more, you aren't as close with him as Sakura is?"

Ino nodded. "We're friends, but it borders on acquaintances. I think the only reason we've spoken before was because of mutual friends. And he did save me one time during the war, but I'm pretty sure it didn't mean much to him: he'd do it for anyone."

"Well, I certainly think the ramen idea could bring you two closer." Mebuki concluded, getting up to pour the water into two cups. "I just hope he gets over Sakura soon. He's such a nice boy, I don't want to see him hurt if she and Sasuke start something."

Ino's smile grew at the mention of her friend's love life. "You think they're going to start dating too?"

"I do, but considering he was a traitor, I'm not too keen on the idea. Perhaps he's made peace with the village on his trip, though." She said, handing Ino a cup and taking a seat.

"I think he has." Ino said thoughtfully. "From the way Sakura talks about him, it seems he's willing to take whatever extra punishment Tsunade-sama gives him."

"And he's taking missions seriously, regardless of their rank. In fact, he's on the same mission as Sakura, along with your boy too." She informed Ino with a wink. Ino blushed at the way she addressed Naruto.

"I don't think he knows about how close they've gotten." Ino said.

"Well, he's going to be in for a rude awakening." Mebuki said matter-of-factly. "That could mean there's an opening for you though."

They continued to talk about various things going on in their life and in the village, like Kakashi starting his training for taking on the mantle of Hokage, how Kurenai's and Asuma's daughter's birthday was coming up, or their theory about how Temari tells her brother to make up political reasons to visit here so she can see Shikamaru. Of course, Gaara readily agrees because he's always eager to see his brother in everything but blood, and his first friend.

Ino downed the rest of her tea, and glanced at the clock. 11:15. She spent 45 minutes there. She figured she could go pass some time at TenTen's weapon's store before asking her or Temari to go with her to Ichiraku's.

—

Temari sat on the couch in the apartment that Tsunade had gifted them since they started visiting almost once a month. She was wondering if she should ask Hinata to get some lunch. She was so quiet before that Temari never really spoke to her.

Gaara sat in a chair in the dining room, chowing down on some dango they ordered for breakfast. He looked up to ask his sister what they planned to eat for lunch, but a knock came from the front door. Temari walked over and opened it.

There stood Shikamaru, who, upon seeing her appearance (bedhead, and in pajamas with little hearts on them), started laughing. She punched him on the shoulder and he stopped to glare at her. But he took another look at her and resumed his laughing.

"What do you want?" she asked, upset that he found her unattractive.

He calmed himself down, and turned to look her in the eyes. "I came here to ask you if you wanted to go to lunch."

Her face softened and a slight smile forced its way to the front. "Yeah, sure. Just let me get dressed, and we can head out. Come in if you'd like."

She moved aside to let him through, and he made his way to the dining table, and shook Gaara's hand.

"Hey Gaara, how are you?"

"Good, just enjoying this dango."

Shikamaru chuckled when he saw the sauce on the side of his mouth. "I can tell. How's the stress of being Kazekage?"

Gaara put his stick down to turn and face Shikamaru fully. "It's hell. Worst part, though, is that there's so much fucking paperwork. Temari and Kankuro are helpful, but only when they're not begging to come to the Leaf."

"That sounds troublesome. I can already see Naruto coming and groveling at mine and Shino's and Sasuke's feet to help him manage everythings." But what really caught his interest was the statement about Temari and Kankuro. "Why do Temari and Kankuro always want to come here?"

Gaara smirked in his head. He purposefully threw in that statement hoping Shikamaru would catch it, and he did not disappoint. "Well you know they love coming here, and they love spending time with you guys. We arrived last night, and somehow Temari already had plans with her girls. She'll probably have talked to everyone by nightfall."

Shikamaru was happy but his mood dampened at the same time. She wanted to spend time with all of them, which included him; but, she wanted to spend time with all of them, which he was only a small part of: a part that she saw as insignificant. She probably wasn't planning to ask him to lunch, so now he seemed too eager to her.

Without losing the flow of conversation, Shikamaru chuckled and shook his head a bit. "That sounds like them."

Temari walked out from the bathroom, and made her way down the hall. She heard Shikamaru chuckle and say something, but she couldn't quite understand.

"Ready?" she asked him.

He turned, and gave her a once over as quickly as he could, but she still saw the fast glance down her body, which sent a blush to her cheeks.

"Yeah, let's go." He said, voice cracking a little on the "let's".

She giggled (Gaara looked thoroughly confused hearing this alien sound come from his sister) as Shikamaru got up from his seat. He didn't know if he was supposed to open the door for her, and he didn't want to find out, so he followed behind her and held open after she'd opened it, so it was still polite, but not chivalrous enough to seem romantic. Gaara smirked, as he figured out exactly what the Nara was doing.

Their walk was silent for a good 30 seconds. Shikamaru grew up being a silent boy. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to people, it's just that he thought it was too troublesome to have to keep up a conversation until he found an opening to escape. It cost him too much brain power when he could be daydreaming about the leaves or a waterfall. But here the awkwardness was almost tangible, so he forced himself to speak.

"How was the trip here?" he asked, rather lamely.

"Good, other than a little sandstorm we got caught in it was pretty calm."

"I love tranquility." WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? 'I love tranquility'?! MORON. MORON. MORON.

"Yeah, I know," she said with a laugh. "Ino told me about how you fell asleep all the time during training, and how when it wasn't your turn to do something you'd lay down and look at the clouds." Oh no! Now he's gonna wonder why I was talking to Ino about him!

Why were they talking about me? Shikamaru asked himself. "I like finding shapes in the clouds. It's much better than taijutsu."

"You don't need taijutsu, do you? I mean as long as you can dodge the attacks, or you have someone else with you, you can figure something out, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Oh please, don't be modest. Everyone knows you're a genius. I felt like an idiot in that chuunin exams match we had, and I'm the smartest out of my siblings."

He blushed at how much she had just complimented him. He knew he wasn't the best looking, and he knew that his intelligence was the main attraction for a girl. The fact that she praised his intellect put him on Cloud 9.

"Thanks."

It wasn't a long walk from their place to the sushi restaurant he chose, so that little conversation was all that was needed to fill up the time. He felt more comfortable opening this door, since it was a door that didn't belong to either of them, and thus, was fair game.

She waited for him to open it when she saw he was going for the door (she was hoping he'd do that). She turned to him and smiled at him, which he returned.

They sat down at a table, and they talked about missions they had. He told her about the time Naruto took out a 3-hearted Kakuzu with one jutsu. She was a bit surprised, but she quickly reminded herself that he was the son of the Fourth Hokage, and that he was a pure jinchuuriki, something he utilized a lot during the War. It struck her just how similar Naruto was to her brother. Both sons of a Fourth Kage, both jinchuuriki, and both hated by their village through childhood. She shuddered as she realized that Naruto could've very well been a cold-blooded killer like her brother was at one point.

A waitress came to take their orders, only to be asked for a couple more minutes, as they hadn't even looked at the menus. She came back a few minutes later and they were ready to order that time.

They reminisced about the time her team had to bail out his team on their Sasuke retrieval mission. He grumbled a bit at how she recalled him cowering until she came to his rescue, but he let her believe what she wanted to. If he argued, she would've been under the assumption that he was insecure about his masculinity, something he didn't want. They both wished they could've seen the fight between Naruto and Sasuke, but neither Naruto nor Sasuke wanted to talk about it. Naruto said he didn't want to remember it, now that Sasuke was back, and Sakura had asked Sasuke about it, but he wouldn't say because he regretted it too much.

Their food came, and they ate happily. Temari took a chance and stole a wrap off of his plate, and he pretended to be angry before laughing it off. He told her about a new jutsu he was trying to make (something he'd only ever shared with Choji and Naruto), and how he knew it was possible, because he could make one part of it happen after the other, but he couldn't get them to happen simultaneously. She assured him that she believed in him fully, and that if there was one person she knew could figure it out, it was him. She was on a roll today: that was the second time in an hour that she complimented his intelligence.

He knew he would have to ask for the bill soon, and was contemplating whether he should pay or if they should keep it separate. He almost missed what she was saying because he was debating it so hard, but he eventually made up his mind. He asked for the bill, and when the waitress asked if it was together or separate, he said "together" before Temari could get a word in.

"You don't have to pay for me, Shika." She said, taking a huge leap by leaving off the second part of his name.

"Nah, I insist." He placated. He felt more comfortable with his decision when he heard the nickname she gave him, and his heart soared at the thought of her liking him enough to give him a nickname.

The bill came, he paid, and they left. They made a bet over when Kiba would propose to Hinata. She said it would be within the next year, but he argued that it would be after. Obviously the odds were in his favor, since they were only teenagers, but with the way Hinata talked about him and their relationship, she wouldn't be surprised if he was planning it already.

He walked her to her apartment, and as she went inside, she said they should do it again, to which he amicably agreed.

Shikamaru looked happily at the clouds as he made his way back to the Nara clan grounds.

—

Flashback:

Ino and Sakura were sitting in a tea shop, talking about the Sasuke retrieval mission. Imo was a bit peeved that she wasn't asked, since her teammate was the one that decided the teams, but her friend said that it didn't make sense for them to take her. They needed good fighters in case they had to take on any of Orochimaru's goons, and the team he picked was certainly talented in combat.

Ino wondered out loud if Neji would be the one to fight Sasuke if it came to it.

"No, I think it would be Naruto. He has a way with words that just makes you want to be his friend. He always wants to make other people happy, and he always wants to help. He's definitely grown on me, and I think he's actually wormed his way into Sasuke-kun's heart." Sakura explained.

She pondered the comment about Naruto having a way with words, and she had trouble understanding. Naruto? The same one that stopped the first part of the chuunin exams just to let everyone know that he was going to become Hokage? There was no way that the brash and loud Naruto had a way with words. Then another possibility presented itself.

"But what if he doesn't want to come back?" She asked Sakura.

"Then Naruto will fight him." she replied matter-of-factly.

She had already questioned the standards that she held Naruto to, but she couldn't imagine him being able to defeat Sasuke. They paid their bill, and got up to leave.

"That's absurd; there's no way he can beat Sasuke."

"Why not?" she asked. "He's a lot better than you think."

They were walking throughout the village, and they saw Kankuro walking in the opposite direction. Their previous conversation forgotten, they went up to go ask him what he was doing in their village.

"We were assigned to go and help your friends in their mission." he stated.

"What?" Sakura asked. "Why would they send you guys of all people?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked defensively.

"No offense, but your brother doesn't seem like the type to agree to help people."

"He wasn't. But he's changed. Gaara said he wanted to be like Naruto. After those exams, he did his best to try and appreciate us and whatever else anyone did for him."

"Wow. Only Naruto can fight an enemy almost to the death and still befriend him."

Naruto fought Gaara? And won? Ino always thought Sasuke beat him. On top of that he turned Gaara from a demon to a friend. No wonder Sakura put her trust in Naruto.

"And I can't thank him enough for having that quality. But you shouldn't be talking to me. Your friends are back, and some of them aren't looking too good. Especially the chubby kid."

Ino took off running towards the hospital.

"Did they get Sasuke-kun back?" she could hear Sakura ask, but frankly, she didn't care whether they got Sasuke back. She just needed to see Choji. Sakura yelled at Ino to wait up, but she didn't slow down.