Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto do not belong to me. -raises hand threateningly- BUT THEY WILL ONE DAY! BWAHAHA! -suddenly shot with a tranqullizer dart- Erk. -collapses-

Warning: shounen ai hints, attempts at humor-- not my best ones, either. Imagine how that is.

by CloudKat

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It all started when, one day, Ino and Chouji couldn't find Shikamaru. Then hours went lazily by, and they still could not find him. The sleepy chuunin had wandered off and out of their sight, and damnit, they needed to tell him about the position they had found Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei in!

"Where is he?" whined Chouji. He hastily stuffed some chips into his mouth, but in actuality, he was worried about his best friend. The chips were just tasty. They needed to be eaten. Being an Akimichi, Chouji could definitely double task.

Ino huffed exasperatedly, ignoring her teammate. Her blue eyes scanned the busy scene of Konoha's streets from the rooftop. She hoped to spot Shikamaru's particular ponytail amongst the chaos. "Where IS he?" she muttered.

"I said that already," stated Chouji.

Ino glared at him. She glanced about the village one more time, sighed, and leapt to the next rooftop with a lingering call, "Well find him. C'mon."

Shrugging and stowing his precious bag away, Chouji followed.

---

Naruto had no idea where Shikamaru was. A loud "Why would I know where that lazy-ass is?" said everything. Beside him, Sasuke nodded dismissively, sneaking wary looks at Ino (her not-so-subtle advances on him in their genin years was apparently still quite clear in his mind.) Ino frowned thoughtfully... Who else could they ask? She and Chouji departed quickly, leaving Sasuke and Naruto to eat their ice cream together.

Kiba had no idea where Shikamaru was. A loud "Why would I know where that lazy-ass is?" said--- wow, deja vu. Shino shook his head when they asked him, and he and Kiba continued their task of peeling apples for Kiba's mother. Shino peeling apples was not a common sight. Especially for somebody else's mother. Weird.

Chouji shook his head and shot off.

---

Eventually, Ino found herself almost face-to-face with none other than Hyuuga Hanabi in the grocery store. Behind her, Hinata shyly greeted them, poking her fingers together. Hanabi gave them no expression, eerily reminiscent of her Branch House cousin.

"H-hello," said Hinata.

"Hi, Hinata-chan," said Ino warmly. Chouji nodded at her and her sister through his chips.

Hanabi's lips curled faintly in disgust.

"Say hello, Hanabi-chan," reprimanded Hinata softly. Ino's eyes widened a bit at this, but she smiled nonetheless, proud of the timid girl.

Hanabi grunted, "Hello." Her eyes gazed past them, through them, making Team 8's former members extremely uncomfortable.

"So, Hinata-chan, have you seen Shikamaru?" asked Ino, breaking the silence.

"No..." replied Hinata apologetically. "But Hanabi and I are trying to find Neji, too. H-have you come across him?"

"Nope," quipped Chouji. "Just trying to find Shika, haven't seen 'im."

"O-oh," said Hinata. "Okay, then, Hanabi and I need to be going... Father expects us home soon." She waved, shuffling off with Hanabi on her heels.

Ino waved back. She grabbed Chouji and dragged him off, once again the pursuit of a certain missing lazy nin.

---

Well, they found him, but not how they expected to. Of course, he was in a place one could definitely associate with the Nara, in a place that Chouji and Ino hadn't even bothered to look in until much, much later.

Shikamaru was cloud watching in a lush, isolated meadow.

And he had a companion.

Hyuuga Neji sat beside him, his beautiful raven colored hair loose and it spilled all around him in a cascade of silky strands. His knees were drawn up to his chest, one elbow resting on them. His milky white eyes stared longingly up at the sky.

Shikamaru lay on the tufts of grass by his side, arms drawn behind his trademark ponytail. His overshirt was discarded somewhere, leaving him in his fishnet one. His ever present pout was softened, somehow, into a somewhat serene look.

"That one looks like a peach," he said, voice laced with a lazy air, as if he would much rather have not spoken at all.

Neji shook his head. "No, it doesn't. It's a plum."

"No, it isn't."

"Yes, it is."

"... who cares?"

Neji nodded wistfully. "You're right." He shifted, and laid a soft hand onto Shikamaru's elbow. Shikamaru's eyes flickered over to it, then settled back onto the fluffy shapes in the vast expanse of blue.

"But that one's a rabbit."

Birds flew past, weaving in and out of each other in a well practiced formation. They chirped happily. Neji watched as they went. Shikamaru watched Neji. His bored expression was fixed on his face now, indifferently gazing at the elder boy.

"No, it isn't."

And they started again, half-smiles threatening to appear on their lips.

From the bushes, Ino melted. 'Awwww...' she thought. 'That's so cuuuute!'

Chouji shrugged. Shika seemed happy. That was all that mattered. But if that Hyuuga did anything to hurt him... Chouji's eyes burned comically. Or if he called Chouji "tubby" or something of the sort, then he was going DOWN, Shikamaru be damned.

Ino wished she had a camera. The most squee-worthy moment was happening, and she couldn't broadcast it all over Konohagakure. Damn, damn, damn. Sakura would be so envious.

Chouji shook his head at his female teammates starry eyes. He hoisted himself up and offered her a hand. "C'mon, Ino."

Ino tearfully turned to him. "But..."

"Leave them be. They need the peace," said Chouji. He lifted her to her feet. She dusted herself off.

"But---" she said again, pleading.

Chouji looked back at the pair, content to just be in each others presence. Mismatched as hell, but happy and strangely balanced. Shika didnt need to be found right now.

"Leave them alone."

And they did.

---

-x- Finite -x-

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Hello, all... there we go, my first trip into the Naruto fandom. This, of course, has barely any details about the manga, so you could probably read it without actually knowing the canon plotline too well. There is OOC-ness abounds, cause I can never get the characters right when I just start typing like this. This probably took me about 2 hours to write... including the damn editing time (ahhhhh! My evil WordPerfect thing keeps taking out the quotation marks! I want Word back...)

Veterans of the Naruto fandom... don't look at me that way. I'm on a ShikaNeji quest. They're cute together, even if this is one of the most ridiculous pairings. No proof they're together, but hey, we can dream...

Please review!