Thought you were rid of us, huh? You thought wrong.

Tenten didn't feel like going home yet.

Truthfully, she was feeling rather guilty that she had sprung her news on Neji like that.

In the middle of a lousy training session, no less, she thought to herself, grimacing at the memory of her performance.

She made her way to a more remote part of the field, intending to sit down and think. Or possibly do some target practice, as she didn't want to sit still for too long.

Suddenly, she sensed someone.

"Eh… what are you doing here?" a voice asked her. She whirled around to see Nara Shikamaru eyeing her lazily.

"Target practice," she said. Then she frowned. "Don't you have a date with Ino-san?"

"Do I?"

Tenten gave him a wry smile, and sat beside him. "She won't be happy."

"Like I care. Women are so troublesome."

She raised an eyebrow at him. He was unapologetic.

"If we're so troublesome, why are you so whipped?" she challenged.

Shikamaru looked grumpy. "Tch. Just because she realized Uchiha wouldn't even look at her…" Then he stopped, and a shadow of a sneaky smile crept into his features, though he hid it well. "How about you? Jumped Hyuuga yet?"

"What!" Ouch. She must have really gotten him with her whipped comment. "What the hell… no…"

"Uh-huh. It's taking you forever, just so you know."

"What!"

"What what? Are you, or are you not in love with Hyuuga?"

She was stricken into silence. She buried her face into her hands.

"Mou! I hate you…"

"Aa."

"What happened to your old fashioned courtesy to women thing? Don't tell me verbal abuse doesn't count. I feel sorry for Yamanaka."

"Aa."

"And just so you know, I do have a date."

"Aa?" Shikamaru nearly sniggered. "So you did jump him already?"

"No!" Tenten stood up. "Not with him."

Now Shikamaru was surprised. "It isn't with Hyuuga?" Oh shit. Hyuuga wouldn't be in a good mood then…

"Nope. Uchiha."

He stared. And then he whistled. Shikamaru didn't know whether to be impressed or… well, mortified.

"You do realize that what you're doing is a low blow to Hyuuga?"

"Neji? Huh? Why?"

He was once again struck with the clueless ness of women. Though most were good with feelings and such, they were sometimes as dense as… well, men. Shikamaru decided that the kunoichis were prone to such because all the teams were put with a single girl and two boys.

Must have someone talk to Hokage-sama about this, was his train of thought. Tch, how troublesome.

"Never mind." He looked up at the clouds again. This indicated that the conversation was over, since he had the don't-bother-me-because-I-like-the-clouds-better-than-you look.

Tenten sighed. "I think I'll just go home. Really, men are troublesome, too."

Shikamaru chose to ignore this.

Sakura had been on her third dish of ice cream when Ino arrived looking peeved. The two of them took one look at each other and understood the root of all problems: men.

Ino sat down in front of her friend (still so odd), grabbed a spoon, and shoved some remarkably delicious strawberry ice cream into her mouth.

"What Shikamaru do?" Sakura managed to mumble, pausing for a minute to check if her stomach was all right. Not that she cared. She made up her mind to provoke it a while back.

"Late again, the lazy ass," said Ino. "I swear… I got so pissed, I just left even if he was due to arrive soon enough."

Sakura prolonged her pause in eating, this time because she was studying Ino with a mix of admiration, amusement, and sadness.

"You really like him."

"Hmph."

"You reeeally like him."

"Hmph." Ino ate faster.

"You reeeallyyy like him."

Ino scowled at the ice cream, ceased spooning large portions into her mouth, and glared at Sakura.

"And you, Forehead Girl? I suppose you came to your senses about Sasuke-kun or something?"

Ino knew immediately that if she had not said the wrong thing, her tone still hit Sakura like a slap.

"I wish…"

Ino's eyes softened. She supposed Sakura had goaded her on about Shikamaru because—

"Uchiha did something to you?" she asked sharply.

Sakura laughed, and it took her a bit of willpower not to repeat her previous statement.

"You know, Ino-pig, you're really lucky. You came to your senses years ago."

"Yeah, well…" Ino grudgingly patted Sakura's hand. "After a while, it was more to get to argue with you than anything." She blinked, then added as an afterthought, "And it annoyed Shikamaru."

Sakura forced a laugh. "Anyway… truth is, I kind of thought… I mean…"

Ino watched her struggle for a while, inwardly growing concerned. "Come on, Sakura… Spit it out…"

"…I don't know." She said flatly. "I mean, I knew how many were after him… but I thought… ugh, I hoped… that I had the best chance." Her head dropped into her hands. "And it's not like I didn't take that chance. Ask Naruto, he'll tell you…"

"Whoa, wait, I'm at a loss here… back up, what do you mean had?"

Sakura told her. Ino's eyes grew wide.

"I know, it shocked me, too," Sakura said dryly, as Ino looked genuinely stunned.

"No…! But… ah… ugh…" Ino looked like she wanted more ice cream. "Where'd you hear that!"

"Naruto."

"That would make sense, but how is he so sure? And why are you so keen to believe him?"

Sakura didn't seem to hear her. She talked like Ino didn't.

"You know…" Sakura went on. "Maybe I always knew I had a snowball's chance in hell. But… I kind of thought every other girl did too."

Ino frowned as she looked at Sakura. She decided that her problem was much more serious, even if she really wanted to kill Shikamaru. Sakura looked that depressed.

"Well, it'll blow over," Ino said smoothly, trying to comfort her. "Actually, you'll see why I 'came to my senses', as you say, soon enough."

"That's just it!" she cried. "You got over him because you figured he'd be an ice cube forever. But he can't be, if he's the one—"

"But look at it this way," Ino wisely interrupted. "It's just a date. I've gone on dates—"

"—To annoy Shikamaru," Sakura muttered.

Ino pointedly ignored her. "—and never considered some of them ever again. That could be the case."

"I don't think…"

"And if that's not the case," Ino deftly interrupted again. Damn Forehead Girl was evading all her consolations… "Then maybe he just wants to practice before going for the girl he really likes." She gave her a sneaky smile.

Sakura cracked a smile. "Though that's really unlikely, thanks anyway."

Ino spooned the last of the ice cream for herself. "Is it really that unlikely?"

"I fail to see your logic, Ino-pig."

"Well, I mean, he's the type who aims for perfection. How else to go for perfection but by training?" Ino paused, to check her grammar, but waved it off. "Erm. And really, we all expected him to go for you, sooner or later."

Once again Sakura cracked a smile. "You're right about him being a perfectionist. But, really, it's extremely unlike him to go for Tenten, me, or any girl for that matter. So what I'm wondering if it's the jealousy talking, or if I should…"

Ino studied her thoughtfully. While Uchiha wasn't the "Number One Ninja At Surprising People!", he still managed to show up to Naruto this time.

She also frowned because, she was pretty sure Sasuke made himself clear when he had rejected Ino quite some time ago. Sakura had no idea, of course, but she should have by now.

"Rookie of the year or not, Forehead Girl, Sasuke still is still pretty dense." She set her spoon down and gave a half smile. "So are you."

Cookies to those who understand. Sorry if it's... eccentric.