Procrastination
by Yvonne Chung
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This fan fiction is not true to the main storyline. The idea of the story is mine, yet the characters an their original plot is not, as this is just a spin-off due to sudden inspiration.
Author’s Note: Daaah! Okay… well… um… I tend to procrastinate myself too.. so.. I forgot to er.. “Write another chapter” so.. Here it is..
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Chapter Four
Shikamaru groaned and slapped himself on the forehead. ‘Was it something I said? It had to be. Someone up there must really have a sense of humor, because now I’d really like to believe that she is on her period.’ He sighed and stood up, not even bothering to brush himself off.
A minute’s walk led him to the front of a small but noisy ramen shop: the Ichiraku. The infamous little joint that many of the academy’s ninjas had a thing for, and quite often, its customers consisted of nothing but ninjas looking for a bowl of hot heavenly noodles.
‘There they are..’ Shikamaru smirked in triumph as he noticed that his teammates were still there. He pushed aside the cloth keeping the delicious smells in and strode in, tactfully taking a seat next to Ino.
“Hey.” He leaned on the table in front of him, gazing at the apparently angry girl staring into her bowl as if it were some magic looking glass of power.
“What do you want, Shikamaru?” She didn’t even lift her gaze from the bowl of untouched noodles.
“Um. I just wanted to apologize for back there. You know. I was being an ass. Sorry.” He sighed and waved his arm for the man who owned Ichiraku to come and place his order. “One miso ramen please.”
“Yeah. You were being an ass.” Ino seemingly turned back into her old bossy self when he admitted he was wrong, she turned and looked at him with an arrogant smile. “Like always.”
“It’s not my fault I’m not the most tactful when it comes to speaking with moody members of the opposite sex.” He ‘hn’ed’ and turned to the fresh bowl of ramen that was slid under his nose with a nod of thanks. Breaking his chopsticks apart, he dug into his ramen without more thought to the previous conversation.
Ino couldn’t help but feel her left eye twitch from his apparent lack of interest in such a godly being like herself. ‘I wonder why he hasn’t fallen for my goddess like beauty and sexiness already. Well.. That Neji guy didn’t. But I was sure he was gay..’ She continued to stare at the boy as he ate, pondering other reasons as to why. Shikamaru did not appear gay, and he didn’t seem to be with Chouji either, so he obviously could not be gay.
Shikamaru finished his noodles with a quiet slurp, and could not help but get the distinct feeling that he was being stared at. He turned to fix Ino with an inquiring gaze, gazing straight into her eyes again that day. Looking down at her bowl of still untouched noodles, then back at her, he raised an inquiring eyebrow.
“You haven’t eaten any of your noodles.” He looked back at her noodles, somewhat in thought, his face betrayed the mild conflict going through his head about that bowl of ramen.
“You know, you can always ask if you want it. I’m not.. Very hungry.” Ino averted her gaze from his face, suddenly realizing what she had been doing for the past few minutes.
“You should eat it. I’d hate to see you waste food by letting it sit, and I’m sure that Chouji would hate that too.” He turned to look at her, crossing his arms like a mother reprimanding a daughter for playing with her food.
“Then, Chouji can have it. I don’t really feel like eating.” She tentatively shifted her gaze to his face, only to blush a little as he frowned.
“I’m getting tired of seeing you give your dinner to Chouji all the time. Here, I’ll help you.” Shikamaru picked up his chopsticks, and snatched up some ramen. Holding the still steaming ramen in front of her mouth, he urged her. “At least eat a little. You know you’re gonna have to eat some time.”
Ino blushed more as she silently wondered what kind of sight they must have made at the Ichiraku shop. ‘He actually cares.. About me.’ She stared blankly at the noodles waving enticingly in front of her face. “Uh..”
“Eat.” He seemed demanding that time, no change in expression on his face betrayed anything, and he extended his arm to hold the noodles closer to her mouth, eyes never leaving her face.
Ino snapped out of her stare and her eyes flicked up to his face shyly, before she decided to open her mouth and ate the noodles he held out for her before they got any colder. Alarms went off in her head as he helped her get the length of the noodles in her mouth. ‘Indirect kiss! Indirect kiss! Captain, there has been an indirect kiss!’
“There, now that wasn’t so hard was it?” Shikamaru smiled at her, similar alarms seemed to have just decided to flash and wail in his head, too as he blushed, just slightly, so that Ino was the only one who saw it. If she hadn’t been so caught in her thoughts, she would have taken his question as an insult to her intelligence.
“I.. guess. Hehe. Um.. Thanks. I can eat the rest on my own.” She blushed again with a smile, and turned to slowly start eating her ramen, a lost, faraway look on he face.
Shikamaru smiled and leaned on his elbow, watching her eat out of the corner of his eyes, so he could watch her eat discreetly. ‘What made me do that? Who knows? I shouldn’t worry too much. I’m sure it only looked like something that a concerned parent would do for a child, right?.. Right?’