a toast to our future.
Fandom: Naruto
Characters: Nara Shikamaru & Haruno Sakura
Prompt: 08. pandora's box & 001. romance
Word Count: 3066
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Warning: Ugh, random.
Notes: Part 1 of 2. Written for 10_whores & lover100 . Prompt tables are here & here.
-
When it came to this woman, troublesome held a whole new meaning.
He heaved another sigh. Why had he chosen to get involved in this? It was as if he wanted to torture himself. And he’d thought Ino was demanding during their years as Team Ten. The constant demanding urges of the female had given him many more headaches than he cared to count.
And when she had finally settled down with Chouji, Shikamaru had never felt worse for his best friend. But the larger man had assured him in every sense of the way that Ino was perfect and that he loved her dearly. Even more than potato chips, he’d added.
Shikamaru was adamant he had lost his mind.
And then that day had happened, and he just had to open his stupid, lazy mouth.
He groaned again. Just what the hell had he gotten himself into? It was as if a personal hell had been unleashed upon his previously peaceful world of cloud watching and shogi. Suddenly people were pestering him wherever they saw fit, and even civilians were shooting him funny looks as he sulked down the streets of their hometown. Clearly, Chouji hadn’t been the only one to lose his mind.
Suffice to say, she was definitely his own personal Pandora’s Box.
And all hell had broken loose.
-
4 months ago
“So, Shika,” Ino murmured casually, inspecting her nails with an air of nonchalance. He should’ve known then that something was up - Ino never murmured anything. She was as loud as they got. “How was your check-up at the hospital?”
“Troublesome. I didn’t need a check-up.”
She remained silent for another minute, seemingly engrossed in her nail. When she looked up again, Shikamaru was disconcerted by the unreadable look in her cerulean orbs. “How is Forehead?”
“Sakura? How should I kno-”
“She was the one that gave you the check-up, right?” Ino cut in insistently, still staring at him. “Did she look unwell? Did she say anything? Did you notice anything amiss?”
Shikamaru shied at her myriad of questions. What the hell? “Shouldn’t you know? You’re her best friend, after all.”
He was surprised when she heaved a disappointed sigh. Her voice was soft when she spoke again. “I know...she’s just been really down lately. I’m worried about her, Shika.”
It was moments like these that really surprised Shikamaru. He’d always known that the blonde sitting before him wasn’t just the loud, demanding woman she portrayed herself to be. However troublesome it may be to listen to her inner worries, he found he didn’t mind much. Team Ten was as close as Team Seven, just evidently less...meesed up, and he thought of her as family. He cleared his throat.
“What happened?”
She fidgeted with her thumbs. Shikamaru frowned inwardly at her actions - Ino never showed such Hinata-like actions. It was so unlike the outspoken blonde, but he ignored it. Obviously, she was in a state of quiet distress. “Well,” she started, looking as uncertain as he’d ever seen her. “No one else knows but...”
The unsaid don’t you dare tell anyone was heard loud and clear to the Nara.
“Forehead and Neji have been dating,” she stated, “For the past 15 months.”
Shikamaru froze. “Sakura and the Hyuuga are dating? And they’ve been hiding it for fifteen months?” Shikamaru wasn’t usually one to indulge in village gossip, especially if it involved his comrades/acquaintances/friends, but this...
It wasn’t exactly a hidden fact that the Hyuuga clan had...certain expectations of its wives. Especially the wife of the clan head. Mainly, her duty as a housewife and all round traditional obedient, ‘nice-girl’ type wife. And it was also widely known that Sakura was none of the aforementioned.
Feisty, stubborn and career oriented, albeit surprisingly kind and gentle all the same.
All in all, she wasn’t your typical Hyuuga housewife. Shikamaru wasn’t stupid - he knew Neji wasn’t the type to date to have fun and ‘experience the field’. He was too serious for that bullshit, and the lazy man knew that the Hyuuga had to be serious.
What a dilemma.
Troublesome. Thank god he wasn’t the one involved in all these messy clan affairs. Shikamaru held no such unattainable expectations of his future wife. Honestly, if she wasn’t annoying and troublesome, and loved him enough, he’d be okay.
“Well,” said Ino, effectively snapping him out of his current thought process. “Not anymore. They broke it off a month ago.”
When Shikamaru remained silent, she forged on. “His clan, you know? There was no real future for them; not the kind that would make her happy, anyway. She assured me she was fine and everything, but you know Sakura,” she sounded suspiciously like she was babbling now, and Ino never babbled. Shikamaru narrowed his eyes slightly. “She’ll say she’s fine even if she’s dying, just to make sure we don’t worry. But since then, she’s been a bit off. You said it yourself, I’m her best friend. I would know.”
Shikamaru sighed.
“I just hate seeing her so sad. She’s my best friend and I love her so much. I just want her to be able to find the same happiness that I have...”
He wasn’t a genius for nothing. And coupled with the amount of years he’d known Ino...he was beginning to have an inkling of an idea as to where she was taking this. “She deserves a good man, you know?”
No, Shikamaru did not know. Nor did he particularly want to. He had nothing against the pink haired kunoichi, really. She was a good friend to have - she was even a formidable shogi opponent. But he had no interest in her love affairs. At all. Really.
It was too troublesome.
He started to get up, “Listen Ino, I have to run to the Hok-”
“She needs someone she can trust. Someone who won’t hurt her.” There was a steel edge to Ino’s voice, and Shikamaru sighed again, dropping back down to the ground. If he left now, there’d be hell to pay for later. “Someone like you, perhaps, Shika?” The last part she added in a saccharine tone, her smile unnervingly sweet, and he knew he was trapped. How the hell had this all gone downhill so fast? One minute they were cloud watching and casually talking, and the next she had cornered him into this.
He grumbled out a barely perceptible ‘I guess’.
She squealed as soon as the words left his mouth, all traces of her earlier distress gone, confirming his suspicions. He’d been had. “Thanks so much Shika. All you have to do is ask her out on a date, really. Just be nice to her and well, make her happy!”
It sounded like an innocent enough request, but the scary look on her face (the same look he’d seen many times on his mother’s face that just screamed ‘disobey, and you pay’) gave him no room to disagree.
“...Fine.”
She squealed again in mirth, and then proceeded to list the obviously pre-written instructions for the ‘date’.
Oh, she was good.
-
Shikamaru cleared his throat nervously as he paced the confines of Sakura’s office. The nurse had dumped him there quite unceremoniously after giving him a weird stare, and he’d been left to his own devices for the past half hour.
He had half a mind to back out when the familiar pink head stepped into the room. She looked at him in surprise. “Oh, Shikamaru! What are you doing here?”
“I’m-”
Before he could even begin his sentence, something seemed to click in her mind. “You’re not hurt, are you? You were just here yesterday for your check-up! Did something happen-”
Shikamaru sighed. He had forgotten that she had the tendency to talk thirty miles a minute whenever someone’s health was concerned. She stopped her verbal harassment to give him a quizzical stare. He opened his mouth to speak, but snapped it shut immediately.
He was screwed. He had no idea how to ask her out, and if he didn’t, Ino would kill him particularly painfully. Grumbling a string of incoherent words, he ran a frustrated hand through his thick hair.
She was sure she heard the word troublesome no less than 3 times in his little one-sided conversation. She raised a perfectly trimmed brow. “Shika-”
“Go out to dinner with me. Tonight.”
Sakura froze at his words, round emeralds widening. “What?!” she sputtered, caught off guard at his uncharacteristic demand. “What did you say?”
“You heard me.”
“Well, yes, but-” she cut herself off midsentence, still gaping at him. Then, her eyes narrowed, suspicion filling her beautiful emerald orbs. “Why?”
“Because In-” he stopped when he saw the scowl growing more prominent on her face, and one of Ino’s earlier lessons surfaced in his mind. Never tell a girl that someone else told you to ask them out! Baka! She’ll cry her eyes out. “-because I want to.”
“Because you want to.”
Shikamaru fought back the urge to groan. They were starting to sound suspiciously like a broken telephone, and this was going nowhere. “Troublesome...so I’ll pick you up at eight, after your shift ends.”
“But I haven’t even-” the pinkette protested weakly, the shock and surprise still in her system. “Wait. How did you know that my shift ends at eight?”
Much to her surprise, the Nara flushed a cute pink at this question, and dodged it with little conviction. “See you then,” he mumbled, before poofing out of her office. Sakura was left to gape at the empty space he had occupied just seconds before, but her mind had already put two and two together. She wasn’t considered a genius for nothing.
Ino.
-
“PIG,” Sakura yelled, her annoyance growing by the second. “What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”
“What are you talking about, dear?” the blonde replied, appearing through her bedroom door. She blinked innocently, her icy cerulean orbs wide through thick lashes. “And please, don’t bother to say excuse me at all, when you just decide to barge into my home. Completely unannounced, I might add.”
“Oh cut the crap, Pig.” Sakura replied, crossing her thin arms across her chest. “You know what I’m talking about. Is there any other reason Shikamaru would suddenly show up at my office, asking me on a date?”
Ino let out a surprised gasp, her left hand flying to her mouth. “Do you have such little faith in your feminine charms, Forehead? I knew you were always a prude, but to be so prickly just because someone asked you out...”
Sakura slapped her friend playfully across the arm, adding in just a smidge of chakra for effects sake. “Is it completely coincidental that he does this one week after you pried a confession out of me?”
“Dear me! Shika must be psychic,” Ino smiled, still feigning innocent. “It must be his IQ, I think.”
“Honestly, Ino.”
Ino sighed, plopping down on her couch. “Of course I told him to do it, idiot.”
“Pig! How could you? I’m not that desperate!” Sakura gaped, shocked at her friend’s betrayal. “I mean, just because I have no time because I work-”
“Please, Forehead,” Ino deadpanned. “You are mad in love with the man, and though he may not see it, I think he’s not exactly indifferent to you either. I know him better than anyone, Sak. We’ve been teammates for nearly ten years, and he’s like family. You’re like family too. And god, are you two similar. Both so stubborn, both refusing to see what’s right in front of you.”
“What are you talking about, Pig?” Sakura replied, tilting her head slightly. “I’m not being stubborn anymore. I already admitted it to you, didn’t I?”
“Then you’re just completely daft. You both are. I think even Naruto’s probably noticed it, but he’s not saying anything just yet, because he knows you two are too romantically retarded to do anything. You and Shika have gotten pretty close these past months, no?”
“Well, yeah, but-”
“You two eat together ever odd day whenever you’re both in town, and play shogi together at least twice a week.”
“Well yeah-”
“Then what is your problem? Do you not know Shika’s character at all? If he didn’t like you, he wouldn’t bother to spend half as long with you as he does now. He might not even notice it. No, he doesn’t notice it, because like I said, he is romantically retarded. But read me: he is in love with you.”
“You get that all from us eating lunch and playing shogi? Because he eats lunch with Kakashi and plays shogi with him, too.”
Ino sighed, and brought her hand to her temple. God save me, she thought. “Sakura. Listen to me. The fool’s in denial. When I pegged him to ask you out, I could just hear the words troublesome run through his head, but that adorable pink tint on his face was unmistakable. And the fact that he didn’t try too hard to escape didn’t escape my notice, either.”
“But...”
“No buts, Forehead. Have I ever been wrong about this stuff before?”
Sakura shook her head reluctantly. She hated to admit it, but her best friend was genius beyond genius when it came to these matters. She, on the other hand, was just a bit lacking. Just a bit. “Alright...fine. But I don’t want you to force him to do anything he doesn’t want to, you understand?”
Ino nodded, but her head was already elsewhere. Success! This way, the two people she had been most worried for were taken care of. She would’ve given herself a pat on the back, had it not looked so stupid. “Alright,” she said, the grin back on her face. “Good luck then, Forehead. Not that you really need it. You never flaunt it, but damn girl, you are one good looking piece of-”
“Ino!”
“Alright, alright!” the blonde surrendered, throwing her arms up. “Oh! I almost forgot.”
“...what?”
The saccharine smile was back, and Sakura knew she wasn’t going to like whatever Ino said next. “Oh, it’s nothing really. I just had to tell Shika a little white lie...you know, for the story to play out.”
“Story...?”
“Just details, you know,” Ino continued, completely ignoring Sakura, who was becoming increasingly wary. “I just mentioned to him that you and Neji dated for oh, 15 months or so, and that you only broke it off last month.”
When the words left her mouth, Sakura could only gape back at her, speechless. “Oh! And I also mentioned that you were terribly heartbroken, so if you could just act the part, and you kno-”
“YOU DID WHAT?!”
-
Shikamaru cursed.
This was definitely more than he signed up for. Hell, he didn’t sign up at all. What confused the genius all the more, was why he was currently crouched behind the massive oak in front of Sakura’s apartment. The rational explanation was definitely nerves, but for Kami’s sake, why was he so nervous?
It was just Sakura.
His shogi buddy, his lunch dat- pal. It was nothing out of the ordinary. It was just dinner instead of lunch. Shika, you idiot. Dinner is for dates, lunch is for friends. Haven’t I taught you anything at all? Ino’s voice, completely uninvited and unneeded, echoed through his head painfully.
Damn that woman and her stupid lessons.
“Shikamaru?” a soft voice inquired, laced with curiosity. “What on earth are you doing hiding behind this tree?”
Had he not been a shinobi, he would’ve jumped from surprise. But as it was, he just froze, his genius mind churning away for a logical answer for him to be creeping the tree. “Ready to go?” he cleared his throat. In two seconds flat, his mind had concluded that ignoring the question would be the best course of action. Sakura raised an eyebrow at his odd behaviour, but nodded nonetheless.
“Where to?”
“...That new eastern restaurant.”
He said it with the sort of nonchalance that only Shikamaru could possess, but Sakura knew the place immediately. Her eyes widened. “Shika! You don’t have to. We could just go to Ichira-”
“Troublesome,” he cut in, but his voice was firm. “I already made a reservation.”
Sakura opened her mouth to throw in another rebuttal, but thought better of it and just flashed him a sweet smile instead. “Alright.”
They lapsed into a comfortable silence then, with the sun shining with the brilliance of the pre-sunset glow just behind them. Though he betrayed nothing on his face, Shikamaru was panicking to the maximum on the inside. Never in his life had nerves claimed him so badly.
Not when he found out he had been put on Ino’s team in their genin years, and not the numerous times he’d been sent straight outside Satan’s door.
However now, his mind was struggling to string together a single coherent thought.
“How’s the team?” she inquired, her face full of genuine curiosity. Some of Shikamaru’s nerves melted away. This was one of the reasons he loved about her company. She wasn’t like the other girls who faked everything. They were never interested in anything other than themselves.
Wait. Loved?
“Er,” he stammered, “fantastic.”
She quirked an eyebrow at his odd behaviour, but made no comment. Opening her mouth to shoot out another casual question, she was rendered speechless when their destination came into view. The new, modernized building was just as rumours had allowed - sleek, clean, yet still tasteful. By the looks of it, she probably wouldn’t even be able to afford to buy a toothpick there.
“Sakura?” Shikamaru’s voice cut through her ponderings.
“Huh?” she turned, and upon noticing that she had been staring for a good minute, coloured a delicate pink. “Oh.”
The slightest laugh escaped Shikamaru then - completely unannounced and unexpected. A blush to match hers coloured his features at his outburst, but the smile hanging on Sakura’s face at the contagious sound was enough for him to forget his embarrassment. In a wave of newfound confidence, he offered up his arm to her. “Shall we?”
The twinkling sound that was her laughter surrounded them as she hooked her arm through his, “We shall.”
Arm in arm, like a couple in a classic, they walked into the restaurant, with a twinkle in their eye and a slight bounce to their step.
And as they say, the rest is history.
Characters: Nara Shikamaru & Haruno Sakura
Prompt: 08. pandora's box & 001. romance
Word Count: 3066
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Warning: Ugh, random.
Notes: Part 1 of 2. Written for 10_whores & lover100 . Prompt tables are here & here.
-
When it came to this woman, troublesome held a whole new meaning.
He heaved another sigh. Why had he chosen to get involved in this? It was as if he wanted to torture himself. And he’d thought Ino was demanding during their years as Team Ten. The constant demanding urges of the female had given him many more headaches than he cared to count.
And when she had finally settled down with Chouji, Shikamaru had never felt worse for his best friend. But the larger man had assured him in every sense of the way that Ino was perfect and that he loved her dearly. Even more than potato chips, he’d added.
Shikamaru was adamant he had lost his mind.
And then that day had happened, and he just had to open his stupid, lazy mouth.
He groaned again. Just what the hell had he gotten himself into? It was as if a personal hell had been unleashed upon his previously peaceful world of cloud watching and shogi. Suddenly people were pestering him wherever they saw fit, and even civilians were shooting him funny looks as he sulked down the streets of their hometown. Clearly, Chouji hadn’t been the only one to lose his mind.
Suffice to say, she was definitely his own personal Pandora’s Box.
And all hell had broken loose.
-
4 months ago
“So, Shika,” Ino murmured casually, inspecting her nails with an air of nonchalance. He should’ve known then that something was up - Ino never murmured anything. She was as loud as they got. “How was your check-up at the hospital?”
“Troublesome. I didn’t need a check-up.”
She remained silent for another minute, seemingly engrossed in her nail. When she looked up again, Shikamaru was disconcerted by the unreadable look in her cerulean orbs. “How is Forehead?”
“Sakura? How should I kno-”
“She was the one that gave you the check-up, right?” Ino cut in insistently, still staring at him. “Did she look unwell? Did she say anything? Did you notice anything amiss?”
Shikamaru shied at her myriad of questions. What the hell? “Shouldn’t you know? You’re her best friend, after all.”
He was surprised when she heaved a disappointed sigh. Her voice was soft when she spoke again. “I know...she’s just been really down lately. I’m worried about her, Shika.”
It was moments like these that really surprised Shikamaru. He’d always known that the blonde sitting before him wasn’t just the loud, demanding woman she portrayed herself to be. However troublesome it may be to listen to her inner worries, he found he didn’t mind much. Team Ten was as close as Team Seven, just evidently less...meesed up, and he thought of her as family. He cleared his throat.
“What happened?”
She fidgeted with her thumbs. Shikamaru frowned inwardly at her actions - Ino never showed such Hinata-like actions. It was so unlike the outspoken blonde, but he ignored it. Obviously, she was in a state of quiet distress. “Well,” she started, looking as uncertain as he’d ever seen her. “No one else knows but...”
The unsaid don’t you dare tell anyone was heard loud and clear to the Nara.
“Forehead and Neji have been dating,” she stated, “For the past 15 months.”
Shikamaru froze. “Sakura and the Hyuuga are dating? And they’ve been hiding it for fifteen months?” Shikamaru wasn’t usually one to indulge in village gossip, especially if it involved his comrades/acquaintances/friends, but this...
It wasn’t exactly a hidden fact that the Hyuuga clan had...certain expectations of its wives. Especially the wife of the clan head. Mainly, her duty as a housewife and all round traditional obedient, ‘nice-girl’ type wife. And it was also widely known that Sakura was none of the aforementioned.
Feisty, stubborn and career oriented, albeit surprisingly kind and gentle all the same.
All in all, she wasn’t your typical Hyuuga housewife. Shikamaru wasn’t stupid - he knew Neji wasn’t the type to date to have fun and ‘experience the field’. He was too serious for that bullshit, and the lazy man knew that the Hyuuga had to be serious.
What a dilemma.
Troublesome. Thank god he wasn’t the one involved in all these messy clan affairs. Shikamaru held no such unattainable expectations of his future wife. Honestly, if she wasn’t annoying and troublesome, and loved him enough, he’d be okay.
“Well,” said Ino, effectively snapping him out of his current thought process. “Not anymore. They broke it off a month ago.”
When Shikamaru remained silent, she forged on. “His clan, you know? There was no real future for them; not the kind that would make her happy, anyway. She assured me she was fine and everything, but you know Sakura,” she sounded suspiciously like she was babbling now, and Ino never babbled. Shikamaru narrowed his eyes slightly. “She’ll say she’s fine even if she’s dying, just to make sure we don’t worry. But since then, she’s been a bit off. You said it yourself, I’m her best friend. I would know.”
Shikamaru sighed.
“I just hate seeing her so sad. She’s my best friend and I love her so much. I just want her to be able to find the same happiness that I have...”
He wasn’t a genius for nothing. And coupled with the amount of years he’d known Ino...he was beginning to have an inkling of an idea as to where she was taking this. “She deserves a good man, you know?”
No, Shikamaru did not know. Nor did he particularly want to. He had nothing against the pink haired kunoichi, really. She was a good friend to have - she was even a formidable shogi opponent. But he had no interest in her love affairs. At all. Really.
It was too troublesome.
He started to get up, “Listen Ino, I have to run to the Hok-”
“She needs someone she can trust. Someone who won’t hurt her.” There was a steel edge to Ino’s voice, and Shikamaru sighed again, dropping back down to the ground. If he left now, there’d be hell to pay for later. “Someone like you, perhaps, Shika?” The last part she added in a saccharine tone, her smile unnervingly sweet, and he knew he was trapped. How the hell had this all gone downhill so fast? One minute they were cloud watching and casually talking, and the next she had cornered him into this.
He grumbled out a barely perceptible ‘I guess’.
She squealed as soon as the words left his mouth, all traces of her earlier distress gone, confirming his suspicions. He’d been had. “Thanks so much Shika. All you have to do is ask her out on a date, really. Just be nice to her and well, make her happy!”
It sounded like an innocent enough request, but the scary look on her face (the same look he’d seen many times on his mother’s face that just screamed ‘disobey, and you pay’) gave him no room to disagree.
“...Fine.”
She squealed again in mirth, and then proceeded to list the obviously pre-written instructions for the ‘date’.
Oh, she was good.
-
Shikamaru cleared his throat nervously as he paced the confines of Sakura’s office. The nurse had dumped him there quite unceremoniously after giving him a weird stare, and he’d been left to his own devices for the past half hour.
He had half a mind to back out when the familiar pink head stepped into the room. She looked at him in surprise. “Oh, Shikamaru! What are you doing here?”
“I’m-”
Before he could even begin his sentence, something seemed to click in her mind. “You’re not hurt, are you? You were just here yesterday for your check-up! Did something happen-”
Shikamaru sighed. He had forgotten that she had the tendency to talk thirty miles a minute whenever someone’s health was concerned. She stopped her verbal harassment to give him a quizzical stare. He opened his mouth to speak, but snapped it shut immediately.
He was screwed. He had no idea how to ask her out, and if he didn’t, Ino would kill him particularly painfully. Grumbling a string of incoherent words, he ran a frustrated hand through his thick hair.
She was sure she heard the word troublesome no less than 3 times in his little one-sided conversation. She raised a perfectly trimmed brow. “Shika-”
“Go out to dinner with me. Tonight.”
Sakura froze at his words, round emeralds widening. “What?!” she sputtered, caught off guard at his uncharacteristic demand. “What did you say?”
“You heard me.”
“Well, yes, but-” she cut herself off midsentence, still gaping at him. Then, her eyes narrowed, suspicion filling her beautiful emerald orbs. “Why?”
“Because In-” he stopped when he saw the scowl growing more prominent on her face, and one of Ino’s earlier lessons surfaced in his mind. Never tell a girl that someone else told you to ask them out! Baka! She’ll cry her eyes out. “-because I want to.”
“Because you want to.”
Shikamaru fought back the urge to groan. They were starting to sound suspiciously like a broken telephone, and this was going nowhere. “Troublesome...so I’ll pick you up at eight, after your shift ends.”
“But I haven’t even-” the pinkette protested weakly, the shock and surprise still in her system. “Wait. How did you know that my shift ends at eight?”
Much to her surprise, the Nara flushed a cute pink at this question, and dodged it with little conviction. “See you then,” he mumbled, before poofing out of her office. Sakura was left to gape at the empty space he had occupied just seconds before, but her mind had already put two and two together. She wasn’t considered a genius for nothing.
Ino.
-
“PIG,” Sakura yelled, her annoyance growing by the second. “What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”
“What are you talking about, dear?” the blonde replied, appearing through her bedroom door. She blinked innocently, her icy cerulean orbs wide through thick lashes. “And please, don’t bother to say excuse me at all, when you just decide to barge into my home. Completely unannounced, I might add.”
“Oh cut the crap, Pig.” Sakura replied, crossing her thin arms across her chest. “You know what I’m talking about. Is there any other reason Shikamaru would suddenly show up at my office, asking me on a date?”
Ino let out a surprised gasp, her left hand flying to her mouth. “Do you have such little faith in your feminine charms, Forehead? I knew you were always a prude, but to be so prickly just because someone asked you out...”
Sakura slapped her friend playfully across the arm, adding in just a smidge of chakra for effects sake. “Is it completely coincidental that he does this one week after you pried a confession out of me?”
“Dear me! Shika must be psychic,” Ino smiled, still feigning innocent. “It must be his IQ, I think.”
“Honestly, Ino.”
Ino sighed, plopping down on her couch. “Of course I told him to do it, idiot.”
“Pig! How could you? I’m not that desperate!” Sakura gaped, shocked at her friend’s betrayal. “I mean, just because I have no time because I work-”
“Please, Forehead,” Ino deadpanned. “You are mad in love with the man, and though he may not see it, I think he’s not exactly indifferent to you either. I know him better than anyone, Sak. We’ve been teammates for nearly ten years, and he’s like family. You’re like family too. And god, are you two similar. Both so stubborn, both refusing to see what’s right in front of you.”
“What are you talking about, Pig?” Sakura replied, tilting her head slightly. “I’m not being stubborn anymore. I already admitted it to you, didn’t I?”
“Then you’re just completely daft. You both are. I think even Naruto’s probably noticed it, but he’s not saying anything just yet, because he knows you two are too romantically retarded to do anything. You and Shika have gotten pretty close these past months, no?”
“Well, yeah, but-”
“You two eat together ever odd day whenever you’re both in town, and play shogi together at least twice a week.”
“Well yeah-”
“Then what is your problem? Do you not know Shika’s character at all? If he didn’t like you, he wouldn’t bother to spend half as long with you as he does now. He might not even notice it. No, he doesn’t notice it, because like I said, he is romantically retarded. But read me: he is in love with you.”
“You get that all from us eating lunch and playing shogi? Because he eats lunch with Kakashi and plays shogi with him, too.”
Ino sighed, and brought her hand to her temple. God save me, she thought. “Sakura. Listen to me. The fool’s in denial. When I pegged him to ask you out, I could just hear the words troublesome run through his head, but that adorable pink tint on his face was unmistakable. And the fact that he didn’t try too hard to escape didn’t escape my notice, either.”
“But...”
“No buts, Forehead. Have I ever been wrong about this stuff before?”
Sakura shook her head reluctantly. She hated to admit it, but her best friend was genius beyond genius when it came to these matters. She, on the other hand, was just a bit lacking. Just a bit. “Alright...fine. But I don’t want you to force him to do anything he doesn’t want to, you understand?”
Ino nodded, but her head was already elsewhere. Success! This way, the two people she had been most worried for were taken care of. She would’ve given herself a pat on the back, had it not looked so stupid. “Alright,” she said, the grin back on her face. “Good luck then, Forehead. Not that you really need it. You never flaunt it, but damn girl, you are one good looking piece of-”
“Ino!”
“Alright, alright!” the blonde surrendered, throwing her arms up. “Oh! I almost forgot.”
“...what?”
The saccharine smile was back, and Sakura knew she wasn’t going to like whatever Ino said next. “Oh, it’s nothing really. I just had to tell Shika a little white lie...you know, for the story to play out.”
“Story...?”
“Just details, you know,” Ino continued, completely ignoring Sakura, who was becoming increasingly wary. “I just mentioned to him that you and Neji dated for oh, 15 months or so, and that you only broke it off last month.”
When the words left her mouth, Sakura could only gape back at her, speechless. “Oh! And I also mentioned that you were terribly heartbroken, so if you could just act the part, and you kno-”
“YOU DID WHAT?!”
-
Shikamaru cursed.
This was definitely more than he signed up for. Hell, he didn’t sign up at all. What confused the genius all the more, was why he was currently crouched behind the massive oak in front of Sakura’s apartment. The rational explanation was definitely nerves, but for Kami’s sake, why was he so nervous?
It was just Sakura.
His shogi buddy, his lunch dat- pal. It was nothing out of the ordinary. It was just dinner instead of lunch. Shika, you idiot. Dinner is for dates, lunch is for friends. Haven’t I taught you anything at all? Ino’s voice, completely uninvited and unneeded, echoed through his head painfully.
Damn that woman and her stupid lessons.
“Shikamaru?” a soft voice inquired, laced with curiosity. “What on earth are you doing hiding behind this tree?”
Had he not been a shinobi, he would’ve jumped from surprise. But as it was, he just froze, his genius mind churning away for a logical answer for him to be creeping the tree. “Ready to go?” he cleared his throat. In two seconds flat, his mind had concluded that ignoring the question would be the best course of action. Sakura raised an eyebrow at his odd behaviour, but nodded nonetheless.
“Where to?”
“...That new eastern restaurant.”
He said it with the sort of nonchalance that only Shikamaru could possess, but Sakura knew the place immediately. Her eyes widened. “Shika! You don’t have to. We could just go to Ichira-”
“Troublesome,” he cut in, but his voice was firm. “I already made a reservation.”
Sakura opened her mouth to throw in another rebuttal, but thought better of it and just flashed him a sweet smile instead. “Alright.”
They lapsed into a comfortable silence then, with the sun shining with the brilliance of the pre-sunset glow just behind them. Though he betrayed nothing on his face, Shikamaru was panicking to the maximum on the inside. Never in his life had nerves claimed him so badly.
Not when he found out he had been put on Ino’s team in their genin years, and not the numerous times he’d been sent straight outside Satan’s door.
However now, his mind was struggling to string together a single coherent thought.
“How’s the team?” she inquired, her face full of genuine curiosity. Some of Shikamaru’s nerves melted away. This was one of the reasons he loved about her company. She wasn’t like the other girls who faked everything. They were never interested in anything other than themselves.
Wait. Loved?
“Er,” he stammered, “fantastic.”
She quirked an eyebrow at his odd behaviour, but made no comment. Opening her mouth to shoot out another casual question, she was rendered speechless when their destination came into view. The new, modernized building was just as rumours had allowed - sleek, clean, yet still tasteful. By the looks of it, she probably wouldn’t even be able to afford to buy a toothpick there.
“Sakura?” Shikamaru’s voice cut through her ponderings.
“Huh?” she turned, and upon noticing that she had been staring for a good minute, coloured a delicate pink. “Oh.”
The slightest laugh escaped Shikamaru then - completely unannounced and unexpected. A blush to match hers coloured his features at his outburst, but the smile hanging on Sakura’s face at the contagious sound was enough for him to forget his embarrassment. In a wave of newfound confidence, he offered up his arm to her. “Shall we?”
The twinkling sound that was her laughter surrounded them as she hooked her arm through his, “We shall.”
Arm in arm, like a couple in a classic, they walked into the restaurant, with a twinkle in their eye and a slight bounce to their step.
And as they say, the rest is history.