Trash Bin: Pawn
Fandom: Naruto
Title: Pawn
Characters: Sakura, Shikamaru, Ino
Rating: PG
Warnings: Stupidity ensues. Author fully responsible.
Disclaimer: Kishimoto's characters and my words. No freakin' pairing. It had potential but I didn't take it there.
Summary: Sakura thinks on shogi and chess and chess pieces.
Haruno Sakura rarely plays shogi anymore. She used to like it until one hot summer night, after more alcohol than she should have consumed, Ino prompted her, in her drunken state, to play against the all-genius Shikamaru. Of course, she lost after ten moves, but ironically she was congratulated on having lasted longer than anyone else (other than his father) he's played against in the village. But... That pissed her off, because when Sakura plays, she's not playing to be the best loser anymore, she's playing to win (drunk or not).
For a month she couldn't even look at Shikamaru and not feel cheated. For a while, she actually read up her shogi, practiced it when she had free time from training (a.k.a. when no one was looking) and the next time she played him, it took him eleven moves to do what he did to her when she was drunk. Ino's amazement did not help the situation either: "He actually looked like he's thinking about his moves!" the other said with more astonishment than there was need to be. Ino's supposedly comforting words just irked her all the more, though, and made her like her current position of loser-hood even less. Great, the first time he kicked her drunk butt he wasn't even trying! It didn't make a difference to anyone that she only upped her losing streak by one move, not even an even twenty (which she definitely wasn't hoping for in a worst case scenario) because Sakura doesn't do anything anymore that included her losing in the game.
So she stuck to chess, which she was better at anyway, and on a good day, she'll actually draw with even players as smart as Shikamaru. It's her territory, what with the more limited moves and a smaller board, so that her big-forehead brain can actually hold most of the data and the calculated steps she has planned. So what if shogi can teach you more strategy on the field? Sakura was a ninja and she wasn't going to live forever...
Winning more battles than she lost was one of the few pleasures in life she wasn't going to deny herself.
"So, which piece best describes you?" Ino asked her one sunny afternoon, her head stuck in a magazine.
Sakura, at the time, was preoccupied on the fastest way to beat the blonde and wasn't really listening to the earlier conversation, so the question surprised her. "Huh?" the pink-haired woman blinked surprised, wondering if it was another one of those "quiz questions" that the teen-nin magazines touted could find out if "Is That Sexy Ninja's the Right Man For You?" or something like that.
"Well," Ino demanded, fist smashing against the small, round table their game rested on, rattling all the pieces with her brute force.
"Watch it, Ino-pig," Sakura warned and sighed at the glare she received. "Fine, fine," the pink-haired girl glanced down at the board, her finger tracing the arched back of a knight. "Eeto... I guess a pawn." She decided on at the last impatient moment, after some thought and quite a few equally impatient looks from her best-friend.
"A pawn?" Ino blinked at her surprised and then began to laugh in hysterics. "I can't believe it! I'm witnessing the day I'd never thought I would see!"
"What day is that, exactly, Ino-pig?" Sakura asked sarcastically.
"You, Forehead-girl, acting humble!" Ino replied between gasps of giggles.
Sakura picked up a pawn and twirled it in her fingers, eyes pensive and sighed a bit with a knowing smile on her lips. "Don't underestimate a pawn, Pig!" Sakura set it down with a smile, "Check-mate!"
"Eh?" Ino exclaimed as she gripped the table in surprise, face hunched over the board for a closer look as her earlier expressions of mirth were wiped from her face. "E-H!"
"Yeah," Sakura sighed triumphantly, "a pawn would do it."
Okay, there's a lot of stuff I don't like about this one and some elements I did like and would like to incorporate in future fics that may actually make the cut from the trash-bin I've tossed this one into. I'm not cluttering the rest of the space on my reasons for not liking it unless someone really, actually cares to know. Whatever. If you enjoyed it, at least it was good for something.
Title: Pawn
Characters: Sakura, Shikamaru, Ino
Rating: PG
Warnings: Stupidity ensues. Author fully responsible.
Disclaimer: Kishimoto's characters and my words. No freakin' pairing. It had potential but I didn't take it there.
Summary: Sakura thinks on shogi and chess and chess pieces.
Haruno Sakura rarely plays shogi anymore. She used to like it until one hot summer night, after more alcohol than she should have consumed, Ino prompted her, in her drunken state, to play against the all-genius Shikamaru. Of course, she lost after ten moves, but ironically she was congratulated on having lasted longer than anyone else (other than his father) he's played against in the village. But... That pissed her off, because when Sakura plays, she's not playing to be the best loser anymore, she's playing to win (drunk or not).
For a month she couldn't even look at Shikamaru and not feel cheated. For a while, she actually read up her shogi, practiced it when she had free time from training (a.k.a. when no one was looking) and the next time she played him, it took him eleven moves to do what he did to her when she was drunk. Ino's amazement did not help the situation either: "He actually looked like he's thinking about his moves!" the other said with more astonishment than there was need to be. Ino's supposedly comforting words just irked her all the more, though, and made her like her current position of loser-hood even less. Great, the first time he kicked her drunk butt he wasn't even trying! It didn't make a difference to anyone that she only upped her losing streak by one move, not even an even twenty (which she definitely wasn't hoping for in a worst case scenario) because Sakura doesn't do anything anymore that included her losing in the game.
So she stuck to chess, which she was better at anyway, and on a good day, she'll actually draw with even players as smart as Shikamaru. It's her territory, what with the more limited moves and a smaller board, so that her big-forehead brain can actually hold most of the data and the calculated steps she has planned. So what if shogi can teach you more strategy on the field? Sakura was a ninja and she wasn't going to live forever...
Winning more battles than she lost was one of the few pleasures in life she wasn't going to deny herself.
"So, which piece best describes you?" Ino asked her one sunny afternoon, her head stuck in a magazine.
Sakura, at the time, was preoccupied on the fastest way to beat the blonde and wasn't really listening to the earlier conversation, so the question surprised her. "Huh?" the pink-haired woman blinked surprised, wondering if it was another one of those "quiz questions" that the teen-nin magazines touted could find out if "Is That Sexy Ninja's the Right Man For You?" or something like that.
"Well," Ino demanded, fist smashing against the small, round table their game rested on, rattling all the pieces with her brute force.
"Watch it, Ino-pig," Sakura warned and sighed at the glare she received. "Fine, fine," the pink-haired girl glanced down at the board, her finger tracing the arched back of a knight. "Eeto... I guess a pawn." She decided on at the last impatient moment, after some thought and quite a few equally impatient looks from her best-friend.
"A pawn?" Ino blinked at her surprised and then began to laugh in hysterics. "I can't believe it! I'm witnessing the day I'd never thought I would see!"
"What day is that, exactly, Ino-pig?" Sakura asked sarcastically.
"You, Forehead-girl, acting humble!" Ino replied between gasps of giggles.
Sakura picked up a pawn and twirled it in her fingers, eyes pensive and sighed a bit with a knowing smile on her lips. "Don't underestimate a pawn, Pig!" Sakura set it down with a smile, "Check-mate!"
"Eh?" Ino exclaimed as she gripped the table in surprise, face hunched over the board for a closer look as her earlier expressions of mirth were wiped from her face. "E-H!"
"Yeah," Sakura sighed triumphantly, "a pawn would do it."
Okay, there's a lot of stuff I don't like about this one and some elements I did like and would like to incorporate in future fics that may actually make the cut from the trash-bin I've tossed this one into. I'm not cluttering the rest of the space on my reasons for not liking it unless someone really, actually cares to know. Whatever. If you enjoyed it, at least it was good for something.