Naruto quirked open one eye as a bright stream of light hit her face. Slowly she rose from her position on the couch as she muffled a yawn. It had been a long, tiring night, she reflected. Stretching her arms above her head, she thought of the nightmare she had just had. The idea of being in a fake relationship with Shikamaru was laughable at best, truly it was pitiful. Just as she was about to return to her bed to finish her much needed sleep, she heard a deep, masculine groan coming from beside her.

Slowly she turned her head, stifling a shriek of surprise as she watched Shikamaru lazily open his eyes. "Damn, so it wasn't a nightmare, huh?" He asked sardonically as he to sat up.

At least the two seemed to be in agreement about the horrors of their new reality. Naruto winced as she watched her friend fix his hair in his signature ponytail, "No, it doesn't look like it."

Shikamaru ran his hand down his face in an attempt to wake up. Damn, he couldn't believe that he actually spent the night here. After coming to Naruto's apartment last night to tell her of the plan, they ended up staying up late to discuss the particulars, and somehow they must have both fallen asleep. They had at least gotten through a lot of details before sleep overtook them, however there was still one thing left to discuss.

"So how are we going to get caught?" Shikamaru questioned as he stood up, cracking his neck in the process. Really, it was much to early for this. He never was a morning person.

Naruto chewed on her lip in contemplation, "Well, if we want to get caught, it needs to be by someone who we know will spread it, despite our fake pleads."

Shikamaru sighed, "Ino it is then."

Naruto grimaced guiltily, "I really am sorry about this Shikamaru."

"Why?" He questioned, "This was all my idea after all."

"But you're doing all of this for me. As if being in a relationship with me wasn't bad enough, now you have to be caught by Ino! And she's such a blabbermouth, which I suppose is why we're choosing her, but she's also one of your closest friends, and I'm sure she's going to be hurt by the fact that you've hidden this, even though you didn't really-"

"Naruto," Shikamaru interrupted her nervous tangent, "I can handle Ino, don't worry about it."

"But you shouldn't have to. Handle her, I mean," Naruto spoke softly, her eyes never meeting his gaze.

Calmly, Shikamaru approached her, using his fingers to tilt up her chin, forcing their eyes to meet, "And you shouldn't have to marry someone you don't love."

"It's not fair," She whispered, her blue eyes blinking away unshed tears, "You shouldn't have to pretend to be in love with me, and risk ending your relationship with Temari forever."

"No, it's not fair," He conceded, "But I can think of a lot of things that are worse than pretending to be in a relationship with you."

A small blush crawled up her cheeks, heating up as she realized that he still held her gaze, "Would you even be able to do it? Pretend to love me when you love another?"

Shikamaru smirked slightly, "Trust me Naruto, it won't be difficult. You're an easy woman to love."

As Naruto looked abashedly off to the side, he realized with a surprise that he was still holding on to her chin, causing him to take a step back. Running a hand through his hair in irritation, he continued, "As long as we play our cards right, and stick to the story we discussed last night, no one would have any cause to doubt us."

"And how long will this charade of ours go on for?" Naruto questioned.

"For as long as it takes."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that the Daimyo's son is obviously looking for a bride. He has his gaze set on you for now, but you would never be truly safe until he's moved on," Shikamaru explained awkwardly, itching for a cigarette.

Naruto blinked, "You want us to be in a relationship until he gets married to another woman?"

Shikamaru grimaced, "He won't stay single for long. Now that he's of age, he needs to be married within a year."

"A year is a long time Shika," Naruto spoke slowly, coming to terms with this.

"It is," Shikamaru nodded, "But it's shorter than a life time."

Naruto giggled as she took another bite of her pancakes.

Shikamaru quirked an eyebrow in amusement, "What's so funny?"

Naruto swallowed, a grin stretched across her lips, "It's just, if you asked me a week ago, I would have never imagined that I would end up in my kitchen, eating pancakes made by Shikamaru Nara, with him still half asleep considering he spent the night with me."

Shikamaru chuckled lowly, "Well when you say it like that, it does sound fairly odd."

"Fairly?" Naruto choked out, "It's definitely odd."

"Well get used to it, we're going to be doing this a lot more often."

Naruto leaned her head onto her palm as she smiled cheekily, "Is that a proposition dear Shika?"

Shikamaru leaned in, a slow lopsided grin spreading, "Well of course it is my dear Naru. I thought I made my intentions quite clear."

Naruto withheld a giggle, she quite enjoyed flirtatious banter, "Oh how forward! Aren't you supposed to take me out to dinner before you make such wild propositions?"

Shikamaru lets his gaze drag slowly, obviously across her figure. With a lazy smile, he leaned back into his seat, "You're worth skipping a few steps for, but if you insist I can whip up another batch of pancakes, light a few candles, close the shutters and pretend that it's nightfall."

Naruto felt her heart pound as she gulped. Damn, he was good at this teasing thing. "Where did you learn how to flirt like that?" She asked suddenly, averting her gaze and willing her blush to subside. There was no way she was going to keep flirting if this was how her body reacted to his reciprocation.

Shikamaru shrugged, thankfully not noticing her rather extreme reaction to his innocent flirtation, "I've always been good with words. Temari always said it was my one redeeming feature."

Right. Temari. A few years previous, Naruto and a few other girls used to come up with wild conclusions and hypothesize on why the gorgeous older blond would date their last friend. Reasons ranging from mean ideas such as pity, to more extreme stuff such as a secret mission ordered by Gaara in order to establish closer ties between Suna and Konoha. But if this was how he flirted innocently without really even trying, then Naruto had to tip her hat to the older ninja. She had discovered a gold mine. And no, Naruto wasn't bitter… much.

Swallowing, she nervously replied, "Well, it looks like Temari was right. Perhaps this whole fake relationship thing wouldn't be as hard as I previously suspected."

Shikamaru smirked, "And why is that, dear Naru?"

Naruto's eyes widened in panic, before she anxiously met his teasing gaze. The damn bastard was just messing with her! Scowling, she muttered, "Oh shut up Shika."

The Nara's eyes widened in faux innocence, his palms upturned in surrender, "Why, I have no idea what you mean."

Naruto grumbled angrily as she shoved pancakes into her mouth, "Cheeky, womanizing bastard."

Shikamaru chuckled in amusement. Naruto was always fun to mess with, but their new found flirtations just made it so much more interesting. He watched her silently as she continued to eat, steadfastly ignoring his inquiring gaze. She was beautiful, he mused, even dressed in tattered pajamas. Not a lot of people could pull off that look, he knew. Every man alive would probably kill to have her, in fact, he was quite certain he could name a list of people who would happily kill him once word of their "relationship" was to get out. That is, you know, if Temari didn't kill him first.

He felt a pang right in his heart as he thought of the older blond. They were together for so long, and hopefully they'll be together again. She would forgive him, he knew. She had to forgive him, because frankly Shikamaru didn't know what he would do if she didn't. The only ones aware of his ridiculous plan were the Hokage and his father. The first time he told the Nara patriarch about his idea, Shikaku suggested telling Temari about it, in hopes of sparing her feelings and their future relationship. Shikamaru was disgruntled as he refused. If Temari was aware of the relationship being fake, she could unintentionally tip someone off to the truth; it was a risk Shikamaru couldn't afford to take. And as much as he hated to admit it, it was going to be Temari's utter and inevitable heartbreak which sold Shikamaru and Naruto's performance.

Shikamaru Nara was an utter bastard. But he did what he had to do, for the future of Konoha.

Shikamaru had left her apartment soon after breakfast, thankfully leaving early enough to not be caught by some of Naruto's more nosey neighbors. With a sigh she gathered her waist long blond hair into a high pony tail, blowing away the traitorous strands that fell across her face. She didn't have a team training session until later in the afternoon, so she used her lazy morning to clean her apartment, allowing her time to think of her current predicament.

A small blush creeped up her face as she thought of the lazy, smoke loving jonin. It was odd, she knew, reacting this way to a man she had known all her life. It wasn't as though she had a crush on him, she just happened to acknowledge the fact that he was handsome. Granted, she had acknowledged that fact quite a few years ago, watching his infamous Chunin Exam finals, but it was slightly different now. Now he actually flirted with her, despite it being in jest.

She sighed once more, an action she knew she would be doing quite often for the next few months that they were forced to keep up this charade. It was kind of him, she realized, to sacrifice his own relationship to help her. She knew he didn't do it for her, well not really. Shikamaru was only helping her to save Konoha, not that she could blame him. He was oddly selfless that way.

Last night, before sleep had inevitably taken over, they went over quite a few details of their new arrangement. At first, she wondered why it had to be Shikamaru she 'dated'. It would perhaps be a lot easier to believe if she were to announce the fact that she was dating Sasuke. Shikamaru grimaced when she told him this, before calmly explaining the situation; Sasuke just didn't have the political backing necessary to make the Daimyo back off. With no clan to his name, being the only survivor and all, coupled with the fact that it was only a few years previous that he was Fire Country's greatest enemy, no one in the Daimyo's court would care about insulting Sasuke by essentially stealing his girlfriend. The Uchiha never fully claimed his seat on the council, considering he was technically still on probation, and his borderline anti-social tendencies have halted him from making any types of political alliances in Konoha. In the eyes of the Daimyo, Sasuke Uchiha has no political power whatsoever, and wouldn't hesitate to steal Naruto away from him in a second.

Shikamaru Nara, on the other hand, was a completely different case. At the young age of 18, Shikamaru was already the Head of one of the largest and most influential clans in Konoha. As the son of the Head Strategist and Jonin Commander, Shikamaru held quite a lot of sway in Konoha's council, the members deeply respecting his opinion and expertise. He was known across the nations for his strategies and unparalleled intelligence, making him a horrible enemy to have. Worst of all, Shikamaru had amassed a sheer ridiculous amount of allies since attaining the position of Clan Head.

He had traversed across the Nations, meeting members of clans and brokering trading deals for the medicine his clan produced. This way, exportation and importation in Konoha practically doubled in size, all thanks to the manipulations of Shikamaru. He was also the Suna Ambassador, the sole physical representation of the Fire Country's interest in the Wind Country. To insult Shikamaru was to insult a plethora of others, a mistake no Daimyo wanted to make. Especially by offering a proposal to his already confirmed paramour.

The Daimyo could, in essence, still demand that Naruto marry his son. However, political favor for him would drop immensely if word were to get out that he stole the woman of another, powerful man. It was all mind boggling, Naruto knew, the sheer amount of politics that went into a decision like this. By asking for her hand in the first place, the Daimyo's son wasn't really messing around, declaring to practically everyone that Naruto was soon to be his. She could always refuse the marriage, but the backlash was going to be the worst. The more she thought of it, the more she realized that Shikamaru was right: this was their only choice.

She just hoped nobody got too hurt in the process.

"You're late, Dobe," Sasuke taunted with a slight smirk creeping across his fine features.

Sticking up the middle finger, Naruto courteously replied, "Blow me, Teme."

Sakura scrunched up her nose in disgust, "That's not how a lady should speak, Naruto. Really, how uncouth could you possibly be?"

Naruto waved her away in irritation, taking a seat on the floor and leaning on the tree, her eyes halfway closed, "Well you can blow me too, Sakura-chan."

Sasuke gave the blond an inquisitive look, "You're not usually this vulgar this early into a meeting."

Damn, the Teme knew her well. With a teasing smile and a glint in her eyes, she cooed, "Awww Sasuke-kun, are you worried about me?"

The Uchiha rolled his eyes, "Only worried that your irritation would actually cause you to be more annoying than usual."

Sai snickered, "I do not believe that is possible."

Glaring at the pale effeminate boy, Naruto bit out, "Fuck you too, Sai."

Sai smiled, "Now? Very well, if you insist."

Naruto groaned, "Kami, I never thought I would reach the day where I wished you were still the hollow man who couldn't begin to understand what a joke even was."

"You have no one but yourself to blame," Sai informed with a shrug.

"I suppose so," Naruto acknowledged, "Anyways, are we going to sit around lazily waiting for our Cyclops of a sensei, or are we going to get some training done?"

A dangerous, feral look entered Sasuke's eyes, "Lets get started."

Sakura just groaned as she watched the two powerhouses of Team 7 get ready for yet another spar. Sakura was waiting at the clearing for her team a full half hour before Naruto or Sai even arrived, with just Sasuke for company. She lost count on how many times she tried to initiate conversation with the stoic man, to no avail. Sure, he didn't blatantly ignore her as he did back when they were genin, but the most she could get of him was a three word response. Yet the moment Naruto enters, it's all smiles and smirks and teasing.

Sakura wasn't jealous of Naruto… much. She just wished that the Uchiha would pay her the same amount of attention as he willingly paid the blond. She needed a drink, she decided, so with a nod to herself, Sakura promised to find Ino after their training was concluded for the day. She really could use another woman's opinion.

"I think you're reading too much into it."

Sakura sighed as she took another sip of her colorful drink. The low lighting created a wonderful ambiance, leaving it perfect enough to see Ino's uninterested expression as she tossed her ponytail to the side, before completing her assessment, "I mean, think about it. Sasuke has always been a lot closer to Naruto, right? Especially when he was a missing-nin, he saw her as a rival, someone he had to overcome. That feeling isn't just going to flip now that he's back to being a loyal ninja. Naruto is someone safe to him, someone he understands and trusts. So obviously he will be more comfortable teasing and taunting her, she's the one unchanging variable from his life."

Sakura frowned, "But how can you be sure? Sasuke is not really an expressive guy, so the fact that he's being this expressive with Naruto surely has to be a sign that he's in love with her."

Ino narrowed her eyes, "Did you not listen to a word I just said? Look, I psychologically break people for a living, and sure, in this case I'm not really torturing anyone for information, but the fact remains that I understand the human mind better than most. Sasuke hasn't been back for long, it's only natural that he clings to the one aspect of his previous life that is unchanged."

"I'm unchanged," Sakura grumbled lowly.

Ino snorted, taking a sip of her drink before responding, "You're kidding right? Sakura, you have perhaps changed the most. Your crush on Sasuke not withstanding, you have completely transformed from the weak fangirling genin to a respectable, kick ass medic!"

"Following that logic, Naruto too has changed. She went from being a dead last ninja with no skill, to being a shoe in for the next Hokage candidacy."

Ino seriously withheld slamming her head on the table repeatedly. She swore Sakura wasn't usually this thick headed, but apparently love made her dumb, "Sakura, I meant her attitude is unchanging. While her power levels and maturity obviously rose, she's still the same foul mouthed, big talking brat that declared Sasuke to be her eternal rival. At a time like this, where his position is still uncertain in the village, and he is still yet to be trusted by the masses, he looks for that same familiarity. Give it time, and eventually he will see what a loyal and great teammate and friend you've been to him during this transitional period."

Sakura sighed, "You're right… Kami, I just hate the waiting."

"Don't we all?"

Shikamaru Nara was reading some pretty important looking documents, when he heard a tentative knocking on his door. Glancing at the clock, he wondered who would be at his door this late at night.

"Hiashi," Shikamaru spoke, quickly masking his surprise with his usual apathetic countenance, "I'm surprised to see you here. Please, come in."

Moving aside to allow the older man to walk into his apartment, he softly closed the door behind him, subtly activating the multiple privacy seals he had sketched into his wall.

"I'm sure," Hiashi drawled, taking a seat at his dining room table, "Unfortunately this isn't a social call."

Shikamaru withheld the urge to snicker, instead he politely offered the Hyuga Clan Head some tea, before taking a seat in front of the stoic man, "Well then, what brings you to my humble abode?"

Hiashi looked at the younger man in contemplation, his eyes gazing deeply to his own, as if to search his very soul. Eventually, the Hyuga sighed in resignation, "I come to you out of respect for our alliance."

Shikamaru nodded sharply. It was a little known fact that the Hyuga and Nara had a close alliance, after all it was only brokered between the two clans a year previously when Shikamaru came into power, "You plan on making a drastic political move."

"I do," Hiashi readily agreed, "I want to propose a marriage between my nephew Neji, and Naruto Uzumaki."

Well, this was… unexpected. Shikamaru breathed in deeply, his features not betraying his rapid thoughts, "And what brought this on?"

Hyuga leaned back into his seat, "We cannot allow the jinchuriki to leave Konoha, especially not one who is to be our next Hokage. Neji and Naruto have a good working friendship, their subsequent marriage would not be taxing on either party, and would bring a lot of prosperity to Konoha."

"As well as fame to the Hyuga clan, I'd imagine," Shikamaru drawled.

"A mere added bonus, I assure you."

"And how would you propose that the Daimyo react," Shikamaru spoke, "When he finds out that the Hyuga clan had offered a proposal to his sons beloved mere days after they offered their own?"

Hiashi's eyes narrowed at they boys taunting tone, "The Daimyo's reaction is of no consequence to the Hyuga Clan."

Shikamaru clicked his tongue, "And here I thought you were an intelligent man. If you go through with this plan, whether Naruto accepts the proposal or not, it would be seen as a blatant insult against the Daimyo's court. He would destroy your clan, Hiashi, regardless of how powerful you are."

"We must try something, young Shikamaru."

"Something, certainly, however this plan is pure suicide. You would offer the woman beloved by the Daimyo's son to your nephew, a member or the branch family who has no hopes of ever becoming clan head? This plan is absolutely idiotic."

"Well then, should I be rest assured that the master strategist of Konoha has his own plan to keep our jinchuriki?"

Shikamaru's eyes widened, before narrowing in suspicion. With a laugh, he spoke, "You never planned on offering a proposal between Neji and Naruto. You planned this all to see if I had my own plan to get Naruto out of this marriage."

Hiashi shrugged, "Can you blame me? I have a vested interest in keeping the jinchuriki in Konoha, I just wanted reassurance that she was safe."

"And it never crossed your mind to ask me outright?"

Hiashi chuckled lowly, "You are many things, Shikamaru, however forthcoming isn't one of them."

The Nara nodded, "Perhaps you are right about that. Regardless, I don't respond well to others attempting to manipulate me."

"Well it is not as though my plan worked."

"Which is why I stressed the attempting."

Hiashi smiled briefly, "I always knew establishing an alliance with you was the right call, very few could match your wit."

"Complimenting me would do little to help you in your foolish goal."

"Well then, prove me wrong and tell me forthright; do you have a plan to protect our future Hokage?"

Shikamaru quickly outweighed the pros and cons, before allowing a sly smirk to spread, "Not a plan, exactly. More like a careful revelation of a well kept secret."

"I hate when you speak in tongues."

"Nonsense, my wit and strategical moves are exactly why you respect me so much."

"A fact I often find myself at odds with."

"Do not worry too much, most people hate my deceitful personality as much as they cherish it."

"So I should not worry?"

"No Hiashi, there is no need to worry. In fact, I will ask you to keep quiet on the topic for the next coming days, allowing the events to pass its course. When it is time, I shall ask you for a favor, one I sincerely hope you will grant."

Hiashi nodded seriously, "If it is within my power, I shall do whatever it is you ask of me. For the future of Konoha."

"For the future of Konoha."