This is the first of a set of one-shots I'll be doing. They'll be like To Dance with Her and Stumble, but all collected here, and themed under kissing, or whatever else I come up with.

So! Let me know what you think - good or bad!

Chapter 1

Seduction

"It takes a lot of experience for a girl to kiss like a beginner."

~ Ladies Home Journal, 1948

"I think I'd be good at it."

"At what, Ino?"

"At a seduction mission."

"Hn. I'm sure you would."

It was official. Shikamaru was ignoring her. Here she was, looking gorgeous as all get-out stretched out across the couch in his office as he prepared a mission strategy that could, let's face it, definitely wait until he didn't have a gorgeous-as-all-get-out woman sprawled across the couch in his office.

Harumph.

She'd sort of thought he'd be all over her. She wanted to be all over him, after all.

They had just started dating a few weeks prior, and though things had certainly changed between them, Ino found herself frustrated at how slowly things were actually progressing. Sure, he'd kiss her goodnight now, and when she reached out to hold his hand, he grasped hers firmly back. And yeah, he'd taken her out on two dates so far, so really she didn't have a reason to complain. Except she wanted more than that. And she wanted him to want more than that too.

Unfortunately, her boyfriend was acting like a perfect gentleman. But sitting in his office, waiting for him to notice her, Ino decided she was done waiting on that lazy man to initiate anything.

"You'd be okay with that, Shikamaru? Sometimes I'd have to kiss them, you know."

"Yeah, Ino. I know what a seduction mission is."

His lack of jealousy was equally annoying.

"I'd have a sleeping serum, or even poison, in a seal on my lips of course. But they wouldn't know that."

"Nn. Of course."

"But it's not like you just walk up to a guy and kiss him. It's way more than that."

He didn't even look up from his paperwork as he replied, completely monotone, "Seems to me that'd do the trick."

"Of course, not, Shikamaru! A seduction ends with a kiss- you've got to have a good lead-up."

"You've never done one – how would you know?"

Ino fell silent for a few moments, holding back her remark as heat simmered under the surface of her skin. She knew her face gave her intentions and feelings away, and if Shikamaru would have looked up he would have known he was in trouble.

But the poor boy was fixated on work. And that proved twice-over his downfall.

I can seduce a man, Shikamaru.

"Perhaps you're right."

To his credit, Shikamaru sensed something was off in Ino's easy surrender. He looked up in time to see his new girlfriend arch backwards over the arm of the sofa to stretch, her shirt riding up and exposing her stomach just a little. Not that he'd never seen her stomach before – obviously her ninja outfit made him and everyone else privy to way more than just that little sliver. But that fact did nothing to prevent the jolt of warmth that shot through him.

He'd rather wished she hadn't tagged along to "help him do paperwork." Now that they were dating there was no reason for him not to look, not to think the things he'd pushed back for so long. But he'd still wanted to take things slow – after all, she was a long-time friend, and incredibly important person in his life. And this was a big change. He didn't want to rush her.

Yet they hadn't gotten a lot of time together lately, he'd been so busy. So who was he to say no to his old friend and new girlfriend when she'd turned those dreamy eyes up at him and asked to stay late in his office while he worked?

But now she was standing and coming over to his desk. He couldn't help but eye her warily. Was he about to get yelled at? Nagged? Whined at? Was she going to keep going on about seduction missions? Whatever it was, it was going to interrupt his work.

What she did was perch herself quietly on the edge of his desk, those long creamy legs crossed, one tall blue stiletto pointing towards the door.

He looked up at her, suspicion creeping to the forefront of his thoughts.

"Sorry, Shika. I'm just a little bored, to be honest." He sighed and nodded.

"I know. Sorry I gotta do this. I told you it wouldn't be much fun."

She smiled and reached out to run her finger slowly along the collar of his vest. Even though she wasn't touching him, the nearness of her almost made him shiver. Almost.

"It's okay. I don't mind. I like spending time with you." And she smiled at him so shyly, so bashfully honest that he couldn't help smiling back, just a little bit.

"Would you mind telling me what you're doing?"

He sighed again. 'No' was so difficult with her.

"You see this map?" She leaned over towards him, just slightly, to look down at what he was pointing at, and all of a sudden all of his upper-level brain functions shut down, all because of the two inches of cleavage that was suddenly only five inches away from his eye line. His gaze shooting up to her face to see if she'd caught him staring, he found her eyes meeting his.

"What's it a map of?" He cleared his throat and continued.

"It's where I'm planning the next attack on the missing ninjas. If we can lure them to this clearing from upriver…"

Shikamaru trailed off. The thin, tied strap of her blue shirt had just fallen off her shoulder. The shoulder right in front of him – the arm she was leaning all her weigh on as she leaned over his desk, eyes cast down on his work. Time seemed to crawl in slow motion as she turned her gaze to her shoulder, reached her other hand across her body, and slowly pulled it back up into place with those long dexterous fingers of hers. Noticing his pause, she switched her gaze back down at him;

"Then what, Shika?" There was nothing abnormal about her tone. Nothing. Was he reading too much into it then that she seemed quietly eager? Maybe even a tad breathy? Or was she doing this on purpose? Her proximity was doing funny things to his head…

Ino swore inwardly. She almost blew it there; put too much behind her words. She was so sure Shikamaru was going to catch on too soon. He was too smart for anything but the most careful approach. She couldn't be that transparent, not if she wanted to make him think it was his idea.

She waited with baited breath, not daring to break eye contact. When it was going on a bit too long – when she knew he was over-analyzing, she creased her eyebrows and leaned forward just the slightest bit. Under the guise of getting a better look at him, she oh-so-subtlety pushed her boobs together, pouted her glossy lips, and lacing her voice with concern, she said,

"Shika? You seem tired, maybe you should go to bed…" and reached a hand out to gently brush his forehead with her fingertips.

Her touch startled him back into the real world. Sort of. Clearly he needed to get a hold of himself. Though Ino's ample chest was certainly not helping.

He didn't get it. She'd worn far more revealing clothing than a plain blue tank top before. But maybe it was the simple allure of it. Or the hint of the unknown. Or maybe it was just the fact that his girlfriend was ridiculously sexy and he'd only kissed her, and nothing more.

Speaking of kissing her...

Stop thinking such dirty thoughts while she's sitting right next to you trying to listen to your crappy fragmented sentences.

"I'm fine. Sorry. If we can lead them to the clearing then we can ambush them here and here."

He pointed at two entrances on opposite sides of the clearing.

"Oh, I see!" Ino had turned her attention back to the map when he had, and she slowly uncrossed and re-crossed her legs to face him, one calf brushing against his thigh as she adjusted to better reach the map.

"So you're using a team here to prevent them from escaping through the tree tops?" and she pointed at something on the map. But Shikamaru was busy dealing with the rush of adrenaline that had shot straight to his core as she bounced her leg up and down slightly, her stiletto hanging off her toes as she played a balancing act, continuing to periodically brush his thigh with that shoe.

The excitement was written on her face too as she examined his plan: "Oh! And you're using a special ops team back here to loop their own numbers back in on each other! Shikamaru, that's so brilliant!"

He looked at her dumbly.

"Yeah. That's the plan." She smiled at him coyly and said,

"How'd I get such a smart boyfriend?"

How'd I get such an arousing girlfriend?

Suddenly her shoe fell to the floor with a thud and she jumped slightly at the noise. Her bare foot brushed against his leg again as she went to hop off the desk to retrieve it.

"I'll get it, Ino." And her eyes went wide.

"Oh. Thank you, Shikamaru!"

Bending down in his chair, he knew what he was doing was stupid and counterproductive to work, to taking it slow, to everything. But he couldn't help himself. Her legs went on for miles, and as he straightened up, shoe in one hand, he reached out and gently grasped her ankle, moving it to slide her shoe slowly back onto her foot.

"Shika…" Her voice was breathy and his heart was pounding. Her shoe on, he still held her foot in his hands and took a deep breath.

He didn't look up at her, but his thumb traced slow circles over the skin of her ankle. The sensation was amazingly intimate and Ino didn't bother suppressing her shudder.

"You know, Ino." His voice was low and thoughtful, all business and boredom dropped. Good, good, just a little more…

"Yes, Shikamaru?" She hadn't meant for her voice to hitch on his name, but it worked out all for the best, she decided, when his hands stilled in response, for just a second.

"You are the most distracting woman in the world."

Well. It wasn't a confession of undying love (or even lust). But Ino knew that with Shikamaru, his declarations of affection were often litotes: under-expressions of what he really meant. So she waited.

And she was rewarded as one of those strong hands began a slow climb up her leg, fingers brushing delicately across her skin.

"All I wanted was to finish my preparations for the ambush. To maybe get it done early enough that I could get some decent sleep tonight. And then maybe tomorrow I wouldn't be so tired from work that when I had a day off, I could take you someplace."

At this, she actually felt guilty.

"You… you were going to take me someplace?" He still didn't meet her gaze, but traced intricate patterns across the top of her knee.

"I was. But it looks like this isn't going to get done as quickly as I thought." His knuckles were now caressing her thigh, and it was getting hard to breathe. This is what she wanted! She wanted him to touch her, to want her, to view her this way. But there was a small measure of guilt to it all – having him take her somewhere tomorrow would have been wonderful.

But she'd set herself to this path, and she'd just make sure tonight was wonderful instead. So she licked her lips and said, in her most apologetic voice,

"Oh. Shika. I'm so sorry. I'll leave – I'll let you finish your work."

And she moved to get off his desk and go.

As if he'd let her leave now.

His hand held her leg firmly in place, and he allowed himself a second to enjoy the contrast of his darker skin on her pale thigh.

"You're not going anywhere."

She looked at him with big wide eyes and he almost couldn't take it.

"I… I thought you said you wanted–"

"What I want has… changed." He stood from his chair to tower over her, leaning in, one hand still on her thigh, the other bearing his weight on the desk and blocking her from getting up.

"Shika…maru? What… what do you want now, then?" Her breathy voice made his heart race and he slid his hand up, just a bit further, and leaned in, just a bit more, his face less than an inch from hers.

"It's like I told you, Ino. You are distracting... And I want to be... distracted." As he spoke, his lips grazed hers the slightest, tiniest bit and it sent a jolt of pleasure through him. He was right there, less than a millimeter away, holding back because the anticipation was a delicious ache that he couldn't help but savor. And oh, a normal kiss wouldn't do. Not right now. Not with her.

"Shikamaru… you want me?" The way she mumbled his name, eyes nearly shut, hands crawling up to rest flat on his chest, something heavy in her voice – it was going to undo him. Her heart was pounding. Or maybe that was his. And then her tongue darted out to lick her lips and brushed against his own. He couldn't hold out anymore.

"God, Ino, all the time." The sentence was barely out of his mouth before he brought his lips fully against hers with a moan. She was instantly tilting her head up and kissing him back.

He deepened the kiss immediately as her hands traveled hungrily up to grab his lapels, and he could feel the heat, even through his heavy vest, as she pulled him towards her to stand between her legs. The full-body contact left him with the lingering sensation that he'd been brushed by lighting.

And Shikamaru had never thought about his kissing abilities before – if he was good, or bad, or otherwise. But Ino's soft moans and breathy sighs filled him with a burning sense of accomplishment. Though he had little room in his head for smugness, what with all the elation such sounds of hers elicited in him.

And with all the kissing, of course.

For her part, she was a demanding kisser, the sort of woman who left a man standing dazed and dumb by the time she was done: her soft lips working over his own, her tongue colliding with his... he couldn't stop the groan that tore itself from his throat. He nipped at her lips, sliding his hand up into her hair.

"Ino, you are…" he barely stopped the kiss to mutter against her lips.

"Yeah?" She breathily replied to him, hands cupping his face, fingertips in his hair.

"You're going to be the end of me."

Suddenly his office door slammed open, sending the two of them leaping apart with a jolt. Tsunade stood in the doorway with fire in her eyes.

"Shikamaru! Ino! What the hell are you doing in here?" Shikamaru balked, scrambling for something to say, when Tsunade changed her mind, and held out her hand.

"Never mind. Why did I even ask? Don't you dare start explaining. I don't want to know!"

The hokage eyed them suspicious for a second and then continued in a calmer tone: "This is not the place for… this. Ino, work on that somewhere that isn't a public building. And Shikamaru, boink your girlfriend on your own time."

And she slammed the door and left. It was all very sudden. Like a whirlwind had swept through his office, destroyed the mood and opened his lust-addled eyes.

"Whew! That was close, huh, Shikamaru? I thought she'd be much madder." But Shikamaru barely heard her.

'Work on that?' The gears in his head were working properly now. She had done it all on purpose! And here he thought he'd been losing his grip.

He couldn't tell if his gut was telling him to be angry or hurt, and while trying to conceal just how much he was feeling both, he turned to look at his flushed girlfriend.

Ino ran her hand down her boyfriend's arm and reached up to pull him close again. But she could feel it in the way his muscles tensed: Shikamaru's mood had altered. As he slowly turned to look at her, she could see that his calculating look was back.

"You planned this." Crap.

She blinked up at him for a few moments and decided to go for the truth.

"So? You said I had no idea how to seduce a man. And seeing as how you're the one man I actually want to seduce, I don't see the harm."

He sighed heavily and tried to turn, but she grabbed him by the collar and faced him down at her.

She could feel the heat in her face, knew her lips were swollen from his demanding kiss, and could tell the strap of her shirt had fallen off again. Breathing hard, chest heaving, she prayed that she looked as disheveled, ravishable, and honest as she felt: she locked her gaze with his and said,

"Don't leave. Please. I wasn't lying; I only did it because... because I want you too." She licked her lips; not as a come-hither gesture this time, but out of sheer reflex and desire.

His glare was wavering.

"Ino, I had - no, have - a lot of work to do."

"…I'm sorry... I just... I want to be with you." And at her vulnerable admission, he cracked the barest ghost of a smile.

"Yeah, that's all fine and good, but now I'm going to be up all night." But there was no fight in his words, and she knew he had forgiven her.

"Shika. Don't leave me out." And she gently pushed him backwards into his chair and slowly climbed on top of him, straddling his waist and running her fingertips down his chest. "We. Are going to be up all night."

And she leaned down and kissed him soundly, with a lot of lust, but also with a lot of love. It was less than a second later that his arms wrapped around her and pulled her against him.

And mumbling against her lips, he said,

"Distracting woman."

Ino smiled against his lips and congratulated herself. Mission: Accomplished.