This is the third in the Pairs series.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything affiliated with the manga or the anime.

Pairing/Characters: Shikamaru and Tenten

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"AGH! I hate men! I hate them, I hate them, I HATE THEM!" Tenten was angered beyong the point of rational thought. Ino, Sakura, Hinata, and herself had all gone out to meet up with their boyfriends and have some fun, since every ninja needs a little bit of relaxation after a wihle. Then, Neji, that bastard, had broken up with her! And in front of everyone else too! She was incredibly upset, and even more angry at the fact that Neji didn't have th decency to take her off away from everyone else and break up with her out of public. Oh, no, of course not. Really... Lee was more inconspicous.

Hinata had done her best to reason with Tenten, saying that Neji was probably trying to keep her from an emotional breakdown from his lack of love and emotions sometime later in their relationship, but it hadn't made her feel any better. And then Ino-- who was with Chouji, said that she should talk to Shikamaru about it. Tenten, of course, had issues with just going out and confessing all of her woes to some guy that she hardly knew, especially since she was considering murdering anything that had an overdose of testosterone at the moment. Besides-- Shikamaru was the most sexist person she had ever met next to Neji, and she knew that one step lower wasn't any better.

"Tenten, calm down before you get us kicked out!" Ino cried, grabbing a small index card from her purse and writing directions to Shikamaru's house. A green pen has been fished out with the card, and it's ink was still wet when Ino pushed the card into her hands. "Here, just go visit Shika. He'll help you work out your problem, I promise!" Ino said loudly, grabbing the older kunoichi by the shoulder. Tenten punched the door to one of the nearby bathroom stalls with her other hand, the one that wasn't being immobilized form the shoulder down by Ino's firm grip.

"Ino, I know he's your teammate and you trust him and all, but I wouldn't even know him if it weren't for you. I'm not exactly comfortable going over to his house during the middle of the night anyway! What if he's sleeping-" Tenten's eyes were clenched shut, she was looking rather desperately in the back of her mind for a reason not to go to the shadow nin's home.

"Shikamaru is almost always sleeping. He gets more than enough rest, he can stay up for a couple of hours talking to you and not die from lack of sleep, Tenten. Now, GO," Ino commanded, shoving the other girl out of the bathroom and over near the door outside.

The other young woman spluttered slightly, before 'harumphing' and stalking out the front door to the club with an evil aura radiating off of her.

It took twenty minutes and three wrong turns for Tenten to make it to Shikamaru's apartment. By the time she had arrived, she had been able to think herself out of Ino's reasoning to come. She could just run away and Shikamaru would be none the wiser. However, apparently, her threatening aura had alerted the nin inside, and just as she was about to turn away, his front door opened. Admittedly, it wouldn't have been a wise move if Tenten had actually been an enemy, but Shikamaru's shadow had extended all the way out and grabbed hers before he had actually realized who it was. Even though it didn't seem like he was thinking, he was.

"Tenten. What do you need at this hour?" he asked rather pointedly, after releasing her from his technique.

"I- I- I- er.. AGH! Your freaky blonde teammate sent me over here to talk to you because Neji is a bastard and he broke up with me." She raged. "In public, too!" She added that as an afterthought, as if it made all of the difference in the world to Shikamaru where it had happened.

"Come in," Shikamaru sighed, gesturing inside. Tenten stepped clutter that was scattered everywhere, managing to smile at the homey feeling it gave off despite her mood.

"I like your apartment," Tenten said quietly, trying to break the awkward silence that blanketed the air as he two of them sat on Shikamaru's couch.

"Uhm.. Thanks," Shikamaru said, relaxing against the back of the couch. "So.. tell me what happened."

"Well.. Ino, and Sakura, and Hinata, and me, we went out to spend the night with our boyfriends. Well, we all ordered a drink, and then Neji was talking and he.. he broke up with me! I don't understand what I did wrong! I even listened through his "Fate hates me" speeches!"

"Those are the really long ones, right?"

"Yeah.. Like, an hour and a half long.. And we've been together for SIX months! SIX! Hinata said that he was trying to keep me from emotional breakdown, but what's this? If he didn't want to put me in such danger, he shouldn't have even asked me out!"

"He asked YOU out? Not the other way around?"

"Yeah, he asked me out.."

"I would say that either he was responding to one of Lee's challenges and he got sick of doing it, or something came up over in the Hyuuga compound. Neji probably wouldn't have even bothered if he didn't like you at least a little bit."

"But still-"

"No buts. He was doing what was best for the both of you. Hell, for all we know, Hiashi could have threatened your life because Neji has affection for you and you're not a Hyuuga. If he's trying to keep you safe, I'd say he cares more about you than you realize," Shikamaru said slowly, choosing his words carefully. Tenten looked like he was going to cry, but she sniffled a bit and did something unexpected. She hugged him.

Her nose was buried in his neck, he would have thought it would have been uncomfortable, but it was actually rather nice.

"Thank you, Shikamaru," she said, letting him go. He almost immediately missed the contact.

"It was no problem.. Where are you going? I'll walk you home," he offered hospitably, even though it was incredibly against his lazy nature to do so.

"Actually, I was planning on heading back to the club. You can come if you want, though," she smiled, seeing what he was trying to do.

"Alright," he got to his feet and walked back to his room. It would do no good to try and impress her in his pajamas, and even though it was troublesome, he didn't really mind.

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Yeah.. Here's the third one. And Neji is a bastard. I love him to death, but somebody needs to take a liberty and kick him in the nuts.

Also, I would like to dedicate this to Wielder of paperclips, because they got me up off my butt and inspired me to fix what I could of this. At some later date, I'll revise it more, but as for now, this is all you get.