Chapter 1 - suprising feelings

It was a gorgeous warm day. There were tiny clouds in the sky gently floating along the pale blue. The breeze was soft and cool , perfectly complementing the summer's warmth. The grass was looking lush and green and it was lightly moving back and forth with the jovial winds.

Shikamaru Nara of team ten, was laying on the hillside in the shade of a tree enjoying the peace and quiet of the calm summer's day. Being his laid-back self he was half dozing off in the comfortable shade of the tree when all of a sudden...



“Shikamaru! Shikamaru! I knew you'd be here!”



“*sigh*” sight Shikamaru exaggerating it a little.



It was Ino Yamanaka, the blonde haired purple wearing genin of team ten, and Shikamaru's teammate. She was running up the hillside, one arm waving high in the air calling out to Shikamaru. Shikamaru opened one eye to catch a glimpse of Ino.



“What do you want Ino? What are you wearing!?”



Shikamaru was acting a little more interested now. He had never seen Ino wear and outfit like that before. The outfit looked almost like the one she usulay dressed up in except this one was a tighter fit on top and the usualy wide and baggy collar was transformed into two straps tied around her neck making it into a halter top.



“What this? Oh this is just something new I tried out. Since it's a warm day and all I thought I'd wear something different for a change. Plus, I am getting older so...”



“Right, so why are you here?”



“Heh, heh... they're having a two for one sale at the ramen shop, I just thought I'd let you know.”



“Well thanks I guess...”



“You're not gonna go?”



“Don't you have Sasuke to chase around or something?”



“Well if you're gonna be like that then I won't stay here then! If you want me to so bad, I will go chase around Sasuke, he's cuter than you anyway!”



“...”



Ino let out and exasperated noise and stormed off. Shikamaru closed his eyes and tried to relax in the shade once again but for some reason, anytime he would close his eyes the image he would see was Ino in her new outfit. Then when he started to think about it he remembered the last words that she had said before leaving:



“I will go chase around Sasuke! He's cuter than you anyway!”



The words echoed in his head. His usually cool demeanor was for some reason disturbed by these words. He twisted and turned trying to enjoy the most perfect weather he had ever seen or lived in his life yet he still couldn't forget those words. He was used to all the girls chasing around Sasuke and saying how cute he was and he really could have cared less what those girls said. But for some reason, the words that Ino said to him, even thought they weren't as insulting as something else could have been, left a cold chill down his spine and so the perfect napping weather was ruined for him.

The dark haired shinobi got up and left 10 minutes later. He decided to take a walk in town. Down the crouded streets of the Leaf village he walked but then he noticed that the streets weren't as crowded as they usually were. He wondered where everyone could have gotten to. Then he turned the corner and it hit him.



“Two for one! Two for one? Yeah it's two for one!!”



“I never knew how many ramen freaks there were in this village...” said Shikamaru to himself. He wanted to get out of the ramenaniac crowed so he sped up his walk a little bit until he hit another boom.



“Oh Sasuke! You look so cute today!”



Shikamaru's stomach turned and then flopped. He hid behind a wall and watched Ino chase the ignorant Sasuke down the street. He watched them until they both disapeared. The young ninja slid down the wall with a light plop when he hit the ground. He sat there in the solitary alley until a thought crossed his mind:



**Wait a minute! What am I doing? Why am I hiding from people acting all jumpy? This isn't me...*sigh* what's wrong with me?**



With that, Shikamaru decided to forget about the previous events and go back to his house. It took him almost two hours to walk back at the pace he was going, but then when he got to his house, he didn't feel like being there anymore so he decided to walk back. He was wandering around aimlessly for hours until he found himself back at the same tree he was at before. By this time, the sun was setting and it was gradualy getting darker. Shikamaru sat back down underneath the tree to try and clear his head, which was still caught up in the events of the morning. He started to think about Ino, her new outfit, and what she had said to him that day. Then he realized that this was hardly like him and he yelled out:



“Gah! What is wrong with me?”



“Maybe the fact that you're so jealous...”



“Huh?”



Shikamaru turned and looked around the trunk of the tree. He had no idea that Ino had been sitting there.



“Ino! W-what are you doing here!?” said Shikamaru trying to sound calm.



“I thought that you'd come back here.... and you did...”



“Huh?”



“Hm.” she looked away from Shikamaru “I kind of felt bad for saying what I said to you this morning. I wanted to apologize.”



She turned her head and looked up. The sun was set by now and the big full moon was now suspended in the navy blue sky. Shikamaru gazed at Ino. He looked at her platinum blonde hair shaded from the moon, making it look paler than usual. He looked at her bangs gently floating in front of her face by the gentle late night breeze. He gazed at the pale moonlit skin on her face which looked flawless. Then she turned her head and her big pale blue eyes met Shikamaru's dark narrow ones.



“Shikamaru?” she asked softly. Shikamaru blushed at the calmness and softness of her voice, and a good thing a cloud passed by the moon at that moment so Ino couldn't see him red in the face.



“Um...” said Shikamaru trying to find his voice. “ Yeah well, I accept your apology”



“I'm glad” she flased him a gentle smile. The moon had come back out from it's fluffy hiding place and now shown directly and brightly over the two genin teammates, like a spotlight.

Shikamaru relaxed up against the tree as did Ino. They both sat there gazing up at the sky, silently, but in Shikamaru's head it was anything but silent:



**What's wrong with me? What's this knot in my stomach? I never had a problem sitting beside Ino before. And it definantly never made me this sick. Well it couldn't be her smell, she smells so sweet and she loo... wait! No, no don't tell me... I couldn't possibly** he looked at Ino **...have a thing for her?** he blushed and turned away.



“What's wrong Shikamru?” asked Ino noticing that her teammate looked uncomfortable.



“Nothing!” replied Shikamaru nervoulsy jumping up on his feet and being flustered. “I just realized that it was getting late is all and I um... have to get going home, I'll see you at training tomorrow, bye Ino!”



“Shikamru...”



The dark haired shinobi ran down the hillside until he was out of Ino's sight. Then he stopped running and walked the rest of the way home...



(TO BE CONTINUED...)

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment