Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Troublesome Things ❯ Chapter 3

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Well, I finally wrote this thing…Took me a while but I did it. Reading back on the other chapters, I kinda of realized I forgot to mention this is a slight AU fic. Gomen everyone;

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

/thinking/

`Talking'

Shikamaru

Walking had to be one of his favourite things to do that required little energy. You could take your sweet time going places depending on how much effort you put into it. Shikamaru liked walking, though he much preferred to just not move at all. That being a testament to his laziness, it would be ages before he reached his intended destination, Chouji's house. In all honesty, he'd rather not be going at all.

Was he embarrassed about telling Chouji about his little predicament? No. Was he embarrassed because the girl of said predicament was their female team mate? Yes. He, Nara Shikamaru, was embarrassed over having a crush -or was it love- on Ino. Good lord, the world has come to an end. Any minute now the sky will come crashing down and kill all of humanity.

He wished.

/Stupid feelings, stupid crush - STUPID ROCK/

At this point in time, lost in thought, he tripped over a poor defenseless rock thus resulting in him doing a total face-plant in the dirt.

/…troublesome…/

Oh yes, this day was just getting better and better by the minute.

Chouji's house

If destruction were an art form, the small forest near the Akimichi house would a masterpiece. Trees knocked down, halfway turned to pulp, rock and boulders crushed to nothing but gravel, ditches and track lines marred the earth and tore up foliage.

In the middle of the disaster are, the form of a pudgy looking boy could seen lying on his back, breathing heavily. The fading rays of light casting a dull shadow around his sprawled out form. It must have been about 6 or 7 pm, it would be suppertime soon.

He may not have looked it at the moment, but he was quite pleased with the results. He just had to work on his aim a bit and everything would be perfect. For him, that is, it would be most unfortunate for those on the receiving end.

He would have concentrated better, if his mind had not been occupied with trying to figure out Shikamaru. To say he was worried about his cloud-loving team-mate would be a little bit of an understatement. He just couldn't get his mind off of how odd Shikamaru had been acting. He looked like he hadn't been getting much sleep at night anymore, he was a few minutes later than usual for training, his mind was always somewhere else (more than usual, at any rate), and put even less effort than normal when arguing with Ino.

Chouji paused for a second, his breathing had finally returned to normal, and frowned. Now that he thought about Ino, he vaguely recalled catching Shika secretly (or what he hoped was secretly) glancing at Ino, his gaze sometimes lingering until Ino looked around and his eyes would snap back to whatever he was looking at before.

His eyes widened as realization hit. Shikamaru liked Ino. Was that what was bothering him? And more importantly, how the hell did that happen!

Shikamaru

After finally managing to peel himself off the ground and dust himself off, he couldn't help but wonder what else could go wrong. He decided that walking a bit faster would be better. Those squirrels were looking particularly evil right about now, with their beady little eyes and their acorns. Pure, unadulterated evil.

Reaching the bustling streets of the village, he resumed his normal pace. The squirrels wouldn't dare think of attacking in a street full of ninja. Walking past Ichiraku's, he absently noted that Naruto, who rather than inhaling several hundred bowls of ramen, was talking to Hinata. He paused. Poor girl was blushing ten shades of red. He couldn't hear what was being said, but cocked an eyebrow when Hinata's eyes widened in surprise, then happy as she hugged Naruto (although still blushing a red so deep it put tomatoes to shame.)

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Naruto finally told Hinata he liked her. The idiot had finally realized she had the biggest crush on him, instead of continuously chasing after that Haruno girl.

Some people had all the luck.

Silently continuing his trek, he turned a corner onto another street. He was taking a different route to the Akimichi house, to avoid passing the Yamanaka flower shop. If he had, he would have stopped at the shop to look for Ino. He really couldn't face her right now. Although he couldn't figure out why; he was just fine around her this morning.

So far, he had not bumped into anyone he knew, and sorely wished he would. Anything to delay his journey to see Chouji. Hell, even Kiba or Lee would be a welcome distraction. But alas, the gods were against him, as they had been for the past half hour.

He kicked around a stray pebble, lost in thought as to how he would start the apparent conversation that would happen. The Akimichi house was quickly coming into view as he turned another corner. He stopped for a moment.

/It's now or never/ he thought /besides, Chouji deserves to know, he's my best friend. I trust him. /

Approaching large house, he couldn't help but notice how the setting sun made the house somewhat more elegant than what it already was. Except for the fact that a chunk of the nearby forest was missing, it looked a little awkward but no less beautiful. He guessed the missing trees were the result of Chouji's practicing, so headed in that direction.

This was an odd quirk of Chouji's, he could destroy half an army - or in this case, forest - but could never bring himself to kill a butterfly, and Chouji was too kind hearted for that. If everyone were like that, there wouldn't be a bad person in the world. Then everyone would be out of a job.

Quickening his pace, he mentally prepared himself for the questions he knew would come.

He just prayed to god he didn't sound like a complete love-sick sap.

Chouji's POV

After a few minutes of resting, I managed to calm down a bit and clear my head so that my thoughts weren't a jumbled mess. It was kind of hard to wrap my head around the idea that Shikamaru could possibly have a crush on Ino, which could possibly be the reason he's been so…off lately. I mean come on, Ino is a Sasuke fan-girl on crack that wouldn't look twice at Shika, and Shikamaru…well, he just never really showed any interest in girls. At some point I believed he was gay. But then again he never showed any interest in guys either. But as they say, looks can be deceiving.

Ino's Sasuke fan-girlism and constant arguments with Shikamaru could just be a cover-up for the fact that she may actually like him. And Shikamaru just probably hides his preference so that he won't have to bother with it, or at least tries to. I wish somebody would throw me a frickin' bone here, I really need to know! Ugh.

I was now sitting down on one of the few fallen trees that didn't look like they went through a wood chipper and then a pulp machine. The sun was still out, but very faint. I decided I'd brood about this little problem after supper. I was about to get up and dust myself off when I heard approaching footsteps behind me.

`Hey Chouji'

I could recognize that voice anywhere. Swiftly turning around (which wasn't very easy mind you! Now I probably have splinters in my - err…never mind) I came face-to-face with the very person I was thinking about…well, one of the two people I was thinking about. Shikamaru stood there with his usual bored look, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. There was something else. His eyes looked troubled. Perhaps I was right in believing Shikamaru had a girl problem.

He looked somewhat uncomfortable standing there, as if he didn't know what to say. And that was probably true. Shikamaru wasn't exactly the type of person to start a conversation involving a girl unless it was to say that said girl he was speaking of was `troublesome'. This was usually the case.

He twitched a bit under my awaiting stare.

Ever since we became ninja, about 4 years ago I believe we talked less than when we were kids. Because of frequent missions, that had become more of a side effect to being a ninja. Talking too much on a mission meant getting caught. Showing too much emotion meant you were vulnerable.

He cocked his head to the side a bit, as if trying to decide what to say to me. I raised an eyebrow. He actually had to think of what to say instead of just saying the first thing that came to his mind. Definitely an embarrassing problem.

I sighed. I might as well test out my first theory, because he was going to take forever to come up with something to say.

`Look, you might hit me for this, but I don't know how to phrase this so; are you having some sort of…girl problem?'

Smoooth, Chouji, real smooth.

Judging by his shocked expression, I was right…or horribly wrong.

“…yes” he said after a while.

I gave a small smile, but inwardly I was doing a happy dance. Now let's see if my second theory is correct.

`I'm going to take a wild guess here and say you have a crush on Ino, don't you?' I said as seriously as I could, I didn't want sound as if I were mocking him.

“Get out of my head!” He blushed.

I smirked. Bingo. Damn I'm good.

He shifted uneasily. Anybody with half a brain could tell there was more to this visit than just admitting he liked her.

Grunting softly, he plopped down on the ground. Quite literally, as if he was being weighed down by this. As stated beforehand, Shikamaru was not the kind of person to talk a lot about this sort of thing. I was about to start our impending conversation, but he beat me to it.

“I don't know if I should tell her. I mean, you've seen the way she adores her little `Sasuke-kun'. I don't stand a chance.”

Ah. Blunt as always Shikamaru.

“You won't know unless you try.” I said.

“But what if she does reject me? Then everything would be awkward between us and the team will become weak, I'll be weak. I don't want to be a weak link.”

“I'm not going to lie, there is that chance. But if you don't tell her, and soon, someone else will and you will have missed your chance. And even if the depression doesn't get to you, there's still the fact that you have feelings for her. It will consume you, and you'll still end up being the weak link in the team. So even if she does reject you, your friendship - or whatever it is you two have - can be repaired. Depression and obsession can't.”

He stared at me with his wide eyes. He knew I was right. He didn't want to be weak at all, but knew he would have to pick the lesser of two evils. The shocked expression faded into a warm smile.

“Chouji, you are a very wise friend. Thank you.”

I smiled back at him.

Glancing at the sky, I noted the sun was almost gone. Hm, it sure gets darker faster these days. Suddenly my stomach let out a loud growl. I laughed sheepishly, he just chuckled. Ah, it was good to hear that.

“Want to stay for supper?” I asked.

“Sure, I just have to let my mom know” he said with a slight twitch. Heh, I don't blame him, his mom is scary bossy, but he loves her just the same. Kind of like Ino.

We got up and dusted ourselves off and headed towards my house. Looking over to him, I noted Shikamaru was more relaxed now, having returned to his ever slouching state.

Pausing to look at the few remaining clouds, that were now a nice pinkish-orange, he let out a content sound.

“I think… I'll tell her tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow.”

I smiled and nodded. We continued walking the short distance to my house, the entire time I kept wonder;

What is it with Nara men and bossy women?

FINALLY!1111ONE11111ELEVEN

I finally finished the darn thing. Now, to think of something for the last part. Meh, later.