Title: The Books, The Shougi, and The Girl
Summary: AU: High School Fic. Ino's the popular girl. Shikamaru's the unpopular boy. Can love blossom between the two or will it end as a one-sided love?
Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto and the characters of the anime. This fan fiction was created for fun. Do not sue for any reasons.
Chapter: Prologue
Comments: Hello! This is my second shot at a romance fic. The pairing should be obvious. Shikamaru/Ino. I'm a big fan of the two. –waves ShikaIno flag- Teehee. O.o'' Uh… Reviews are forever welcome as well as ideas on how to develop the story ;-;. Alright read! Read! :)

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Shikamaru's POV

Hey. My name's Nara Shikamaru. I go to Konoha High School as a junior. I'm not very high on the social status at KHS. Okay, nowhere near it. I'm at rock bottom. Well, maybe not exactly way down there. I'm your average person. Well, nerd. That's it, nerd. I don't dress the part though. I don't wear plaid shirts or high-water pants. Or the pocket protectors. Or glasses.

I spend a lot of my time in the library since I don't have a lot of friends. I like reading, and Shougi. I joined the Shougi club and I've been to a few book seminars to pass the time.

My best friend is Akimichi Chouji. He's on the same social status as me. But he's only on my level because people see him as an obese idiot who only spends his spare time eating. But that's not true.

He plans on being a nutritionist after college. I still have to keep telling him to shape up before we hit college if he wants a career in that profession.

I'm a little too smart for my own good. I didn't plan it or anything; I guess I was just born with an IQ over 200. I have a strange fetish with reading romance novels. Although I'm the extremely lazy and laid-back type of person, my dream is to be a novelist and live on my father's deer ranch near the city.

I want to swing on the hammock in the front of the house, drinking fresh-squeezed lemonade and read a romance novel. That's not a troublesome life. I can freely watch puffs of clouds roll by. I envy their freedom.

I live by philosophy, rather than counting on money to be happy. Then again, I still live in the house I've grown up in, with my mom. She's always on my back about studying to get into a good college in order to have a good job that pays a lot to live a great life. She's not troublesome. She just cares about me, which I respect. I love my mom, but she can be a little loud when I don't get up for school.

A great life… That's something a few select people have. My life currently consists of being incessantly teased by my peers, mainly the popular students. Uchiha Sasuke, the group leader, par say. I have nothing against him. He looks 'hot' and 'sexy', quote his fan club, which includes of about a third of the whole student body of girls.

I wouldn't want to be in his position. It would be a little troublesome, I think, if that many girls were stalking you everywhere you went, trying to catch a glimpse at your body and face, or taking a picture. That's a lot worse. But he likes the attention, I wouldn't.

Then there's the most popular girl—Yamanaka Ino. She is a bit of a pushover, and bossy sometimes. But any guy would kill to have her as their woman, including me. She's very beautiful, and well mannered, sometimes.

It's sad; I've fallen for the girl who most guys like as well. I can't help it though. We were best friends up until freshman year. I was so happy that she was always sticking up for me when others would tease me as the nerd.

That's when I began to like her as something more than a friend.

But then as we got older, so did our reputations. Ino's always been the girl to lead a crowd. And that's exactly what she did.

Slowly we broke apart, our friendship that is. She knows I never wanted to be a popular kid, not that I ever could. But she decided that reputation is more important than friendship. I'm trying hard to let go. Let go of my memories, my love for Yamanaka Ino.

But I can't.

I'm a hopeless romantic, and I know that. But it's okay. As long as I can see her everyday from the seat in the library as she walks to lunch with her friends, as long as I can see her at her locker before second period starts, I'm fine. It's not troublesome to only see her for a few precious seconds. But it's more troublesome if I try to get closer to her.

I had my chance, for a long time. I've known her since childhood for Christ's sake. But she never thought of me as something more than a good friend.

I remember back when I was looking up at a number chart, she walked up to me. I pretended not to notice her, but she had a determined face and tensed up. I found it… troublesome.

"Hi! My name's Ino! Wanna play jump rope with us?"

I felt accepted by someone for the first time in all my school years as a normal person. She held out her hand, and I took it with no regret. I held the rope on one end and a chubby kid held the other end, who was in fact Chouji. A pink haired girl, Sakura, and Ino jumped in as we spun the rope. The two began to chant:

"Strawberry shortcake,

Blueberry pie,

Who's gonna be my lucky guy?

My arm began to grow cramped, and then the girls tripped suddenly. They were in a heap on the floor, but got up laughing.

"S!!" The two shouted. "S FOR SASUKE!!"

Is it coincidence that my name starts with S too? Even as a puppy love, the two already had 'fallen' for Sasuke when we started school as 5 year olds. I wasn't very fond of Ino back then. But now a days I think of her often and how she used to stop by our house for milk and cookies. My mother would have them fresh baked around lunchtime, and Ino would knock on the door. I would answer and she would greet me cheekily, with a jump rope in her hands, a purple jump rope to be exact.

That's always been her favorite color. On my eighth birthday, I was sitting in my room eating a piece of my birthday cake. I didn't have a party. I didn't want one anyway. My mother and father insisted on one, but I just found it troublesome.

It was a Saturday, and I remember it was sunny outside, with a cherry blossom tree swaying its branches with the slow breeze that floated by. I noticed a blonde haired figure running past my window, but I ignored it.

That's when my mother called me downstairs. Ino was at the door, smiling. She held a rectangular box and lavender lilacs in her arms.

"Happy Birthday Shika! I have to leave though. My dad is taking my mom and me out for lunch. I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer. Bye!"

"That's okay. I'll see you later."

I was a bit of a rebel, despite my age. I took the box with me upstairs while my mom put the lilacs in a vase. I plopped on my bed, staring at the pastel green wrapping around the box. I ripped it slowly, and disclosed a book.

"The Two Cat Brothers."

It was a picture book. Go figure. I crooked the end of my mouth slightly, ending up in a half smirk/smile. I flipped through the pages, reading the text ever so easily. Then I stopped at the last two pages. There was a picture of a cat trying to catch a fish in a small creek.

"I think I can… I think I can…"

The text said. Then I looked over the opposite page. There was a picture of another cat, the cat in the pond's brother. I read the text under the picture. I just had to give a soft smile then.

"Of course you can!"

The cat was cheering on his brother, and he was finally able to catch the fish, with the help of his brother's words. It was exactly how I felt with Ino.

Confident.

With her, I was able to live my life ignoring the other kids. We became friends with Chouji then. She still thought of Chouji as a fat kid, nevertheless. But she still kept Chouji and me going on throughout school.

Now a days, I can hold up on my own. I still feel lonely, even though Chouji is still here with me. We were a trio. InoShikaCho. But that's in the past, and I guess that's where it plans on staying.

I still wonder myself, if that's where my heart is. Where it's been living for the past two years.

The past.

Right now I'm sitting on my bed, watching clouds roll by. I can never be like them. Free to soar where they please. I'm just… trapped. I'm not trying to sound depressed or angst, but that's how I feel. Lost. Lost with out the blonde haired temper tantrum girl in my life.

"NARA SHIKAMARU. GET YOURSELF DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT FOR BREAKFAST. YOU'LL BE LATE TO SCHOOL AGAIN!!"

I wince at the voice coming from downstairs.

There's my mom, nagging at me to eat breakfast for the umpteenth time. Yeah, it's a school day. Monday. Mondays are so troublesome…

I slide the sheets off my body and yawn for a good 6 seconds. I slouch down the stairs and sit down in a chair, a plate of pancakes in front of me. My father is sitting in front of me, reading the newspaper, a cup of coffee in his right hand.

"Hey dad. Why did you marry such a tempered woman?"

He eyed me with a half-lidded eye. He breathed out and closed his eyes and brought up his arms in a shrug of his shoulders.

"It doesn't matter if the woman is skinny, fat, short, tall, mean, nice… All that matters is if the love is there. With your mother… Yeah she's a little on the bossy side. But that's whom I fell in love with. I can't do anything about that. Heh…"

He took a sip of his coffee while I contemplated on his words.

"…if the love is there…"

The love was definitely there, by me of course. It was weird how a lot of the men in the Nara family were lazy, and yet married woman like my mom. Unfortunately, I'm one of them. But like my dad said, I can't do anything about that.

I ate the last of my breakfast and chugged down a glass of milk. I wiped my mouth with a napkin and tossed it in a waste can before heading back up to my room to get ready for school.

I don't dislike school. There are the books, the Shougi, and definitely the girl, Ino. Well, having two out of three is fine, right? I'm smart, yet dumbfounded when it comes to the subject of love. I read all these romance novels, reading how a guy breaks the ice to the girl. I've thought up about two hundred other ways to do it as well. I just don't take account for the social status. Myself being the unpopular boy and Ino, the popular girl.

Also I forget I've lost my self-confidence.

If I try to ask her out, I might be rejected, and teased even further. If we do happen to go out, I don't believe it would last that long. I have all these doubts, only because I don't know how Ino feels about me. But that's just a phase of the evil yet heavenly thing called love.

I finish showering and putting on the KHS uniform. It consists of a white collared shirt and a pair of navy blue pants. There's the matching blazer for the fall and winter seasons. The black tie is optional. I wear it, sometimes. I decide to slap it on, for the heck of it. I stick on my pair of earrings.

I really don't know why I wear them. It's instinct I guess. I grab my backpack and randomly pick out a romance novel off my bookshelf and head downstairs. I fit my black shoes on my feet and adjust them while waving bye to my mom. I head out the door to find Chouji waiting for me by the gate, eating a sandwich.

"What happened to eating chips in the morning?" I had to ask. It wasn't like Chouji to change his eating habits all of a sudden.

"Hey, you're the one who said to get into shape. I'm only listening to you cuz you're the smart one." Chouji stated.

I was glad to see him finally listening to me. We started walking on our way to school. I fished my novel out of my backpack and to my surprise I see a bookmark. That's weird; I could've sworn I finished this particular book. I scanned the front for the title. Now I remember.

I read it a few months back, then my mom snatched it out of my hands and replaced it with my Science book. That's just like my mom. Always pushing me to study. That's only one of a few reasons why I like school. I look forward to go everyday in fact, for the books, the Shougi, and of course, the girl.

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Was that okay? Did I screw up anywhere ;-; Eeh… Okay I'll stop feeling sorry for my poor writing skills. Review!