Just Relax
A Naruto Fanfiction
By Lackey H

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Now strike!

"KYAA!"

Crunch!

The thin flesh of that covered her knuckles began to bleed slightly as it impacted with the wooden training post for what was the forty-fifth time that day. Biting her lip to take her mind of the pain, she drew back once more and took a single calming breath to put herself slightly at ease. Closing her eyes she visualized the post in her mind, thinking hard about every detail from the way the wood-grain flowed like waves, to the way the post would shudder slightly when she next hit it. Suddenly her mind and body snapped onto one single focal point...

Now strike!

"KYAA!"

Crunch!

She winced, her fist resting against the cool surface of the post, a surface which was now feeling a little sticky as blood oozed from her knuckles and began to stain the rich brown of the wood the post it was made of. For a moment she wondered if there was any real point to her training like this as, no matter how hard she trained she would still be left behind because of the simple fact that everyone else was training also. It was, in her eyes, like a race that could never be won due to the finish line moving away at the same speed that she herself ran at.

Retracting her hand once more, the girl lifted it up for inspection and winced at the sight of it. Blood covered her fingers from the knuckle downwards and, by the looks of it, was beginning to dry there. Sighing to herself she stepped away from the post and cradled her bleeding hand with her other, uninjured hand. Why did she have to be the one to get such a ridiculously pathetic injury whilst training?

This damn injury!

This damn, stupid, idiotic injury!

This... this...

Words failed her as her rage at the world began to leak from it’s usually tightly closed shell. She was the smartest female ninja in this years academy graduation. She had been top of her class for three years running - until her class had merged with it’s sister class and Sasuke had become a part of her life at least. She knew every basic hand seal by heart, and could perform them as fast as the next genin.

So then, why? Why was she the weakest!?

Damn it. Even Naruto, the worst student ever, was better than her now.

He never injured himself whilst training, neither did Sasuke for that matter. Whilst she, on the other hand, was laid low by a bleeding knuckle.

"KYAA!"

Crunch!

Her bleeding knuckles smashed into the wooden post hard enough to make her stagger backwards, clutching her hand in pain. Still, she was not going to give up! She’d promised herself that she would do fifty strikes so she would do fifty strikes!

Just... two left then. That wouldn’t be too hard.

Pulling her fist back she ignored the blood that flowed from her flesh before dripping down onto the earth below. She closed her eyes and adjusted her footing - to make the blow maybe a hair lighter than before. Taking a deep breath she tensed herself and...

"KYAAAA!"

... her fist stopped dead a finger-width away from the post. It wasn’t just her fist however, her entire body had suddenly tensed up, preventing her from moving even an inch. She could breathe, but only shallowly as her chest refused to move very far.

"You know," Came a drawling male voice from behind her. "You really could have damaged your hand there." It was at this point that Sakura realized her lips were moving in time to the strangers speech. Given that this was happening, as that she couldn’t even begin to move the rest of her body, there was only one real explanation.

"Sh-shika-ma-ruuu." Her lips, refusing to move properly, distorted her speech as she hissed the name of Leaf villages number one slacker ninja. Evidently Shikamaru was keeping a tighter hold on her with his jutsu than he usually used on others.

"You know," Began the smaller boy. Well, actually he was taller when he didn’t slouch, but since he was always slouching he seemed smaller. "Asuma-sensei says that you should quit training if you injure yourself - however minor that injury is."

"Sh-sh-shut uuup!" Sakura snarled, as best she could through unmoving lips, "And sto-o-op y-yo-your ju-s-ssu."

"Why? You’re easier to talk to like this, being unable to hit me like Ino does." Shikamaru snorted and nodded - naturally causing Sakura’s own head to nod in time with his. "Though if you sound that bad, then I overdid it a little. Hold on a moment."

Suddenly, to Sakura, she seemed to melt into a more relaxed stance, even though she didn’t change position at all, as Shikamaru’s Kagemane no Jutsu was softened enough for her muscles to relax a little. "That’s not much better you know!" She growled, happy that she could speak properly now, though still angered at being frozen on the spot.

"Yeah, well, did you really think I’d let you continue to beat yourself up?" Shikamaru grumbled as he moved around, with Sakura mirroring his movements, until the two of them were facing each other. "Besides, as much of a hassle this is, it’d be worse if I returned with you injured." Reaching around he pulled a set of sealed pack of bandages from a pouch in his jacket and tossed it to land at Sakura’s feet.

Mimicking his movements exactly, Sakura was struck at just how... odd the connection of the Kagemane was. When Shikamaru had fiddled with the button that sealed the pouch containing the bandages Sakura could have sworn that she had felt the sensations of actually touching and manipulating the cloth the pouch was made of even though her fingers hadn’t actually been touching anything but air.

Shikamaru bent down and fumbled around with one hand, Sakura mimicking, before finally tightening his grip and standing back up again. He nodded in approval when he saw that the sealed package Sakura now held was still sealed. Carefully he mimed opening the packet and pulling a length of bandage from it.

Whilst he was miming it, Sakura was actually doing it and, for the first time that day, Sakura was struck with awe. It was almost inconceivable that Shikamaru could actually work through someone else as well as he was doing though her. As her hands, following the geniuses movements, began to get to work on wrapping the bandages around first her wrist and then down her injured hand until it was finally bandaged up as well as could be done.

"Why are you doing this?" Although Shikamaru didn’t make a sound, Sakura could feel the words he was saying by the way her own lips mimicked his as he spoke. "You’ve been missing for three days, I got sent out to find you because your mother hired me specifically to do it."

"I... I was scared. And upset." Stated the pink haired girl, deciding that perhaps in this situation the truth would be the best course of action since, after all, she couldn’t escape if she tried. "I... I wanted to get stronger, to try and catch up. That’s all."

"Catch up?" Shikamaru frowned in confusion. Naturally this caused Sakura to frown also as her facial muscles happily followed Shikamaru’s control rather than her own. Suddenly her face relaxed as the lazy boy stared at her.

"You know," he began, this time speaking aloud again "You don’t look as bad as Ino does when she frowns."

Sakura blinked - about the only action she could do completely freely. "What?"

"Your face. When you frown, you don’t look too bad." Shikamaru explained, "Ino looks awful when she’s really frowning you know. I’d never really thought that another girl would look different."

"Hmph! Not such a genius after all, are you?" Sakura taunted, before trying to stick her tongue out and failing.

"Whatever." The genius mumbled, raising one hand up to grope at his chest, his fingers moving as they scratched at a particularly irritating itch there. As he did this he looked over at the pink-haired genin. His eyes widened and his hand froze in place as he realized just what he was causing Sakura to do as she copied him. "Gah!" he suddenly spluttered, snapping his hand down to his side as quickly as he could. "I- I’m sorry!" he stammered, causing Sakura to frown at him a little.

Her face was just a little flushed – whilst the copied actions hadn’t exactly felt nice, they had been more than a little embarrassing to herself. "If you had done that on purpose," She began, her voice as sweet as syrup, "Then I would have killed you. But you didn’t, so I won’t."

"Ah... right." Shikamaru sighed in relief, thanking the gods above that Sakura was a bit - but only a little bit - less violent than Ino usually was. "So... Care to explain what you meant by trying to catch up? Or are you going to let me guess what’s going on?"

Sakura, naturally, stayed silent.

"You know, its getting really tiring holding you here." Stated the boy with the pineapple shaped head. "Since I don’t really want to chase you down again, how about a deal?"

"Deal? What kind of a deal?" Sakura asked, a little curiosity in her voice. Shikamaru was on a mission, even if it was a rather stupid one, and making deals were not usually part of such missions. Inner Sakura, ever helpful, began to whisper various things inside her head.

Various naughty things no less

Various naughty things that, whilst such a respectable girl like her would never stoop to such levels, wormed their way into the front of her consciousness. Especially since there may have been the slightest possibility that Shikamaru’s accident had actually been on purpose.

"I am not going to fulfil your perverted desires!" She yelled, her eyes ablaze with righteous anger. Naturally Shikamaru backed off slightly - which caused Sakura to do the same - at her sheer fury, moments before his mind actually keyed him in on what Sakura had just accused him of thinking.

"Wha- hey!" he yelled back, "I wasn’t even thinking of anything like that!"

Well. Okay, maybe he was. A little. After all, Sakura was a very pretty girl and he, above all, was still a guy. But he only thought about it just a little. Barely a mental image even. Really. Not even a flash of-

Shikamaru shook his head to clear it of the images that, due to Sakura’s prompting, were now forming inside his head.

"O-Oh..." Sakura blushed in embarrassment at her outburst, though she still secretly thought that Shikamaru was up to something. He had beady eyes after all, the kind that belonged to people who were always up to something.

"Well," Drawled the genius, "Uh, I was thinking more of, uhm, lunch. Or something."

"Huh?"

"Lunch. I was wondering if you’d have lunch with me while we talk all this over." Shikamaru said, deliberately not looking directly at Sakura. "I have to find out why you went missing as part of my mission as well you know."

The pink haired genin stared at Shikamaru for a few moments, her eyes closed as she considered this. "If I just ran away again..." She began, "You’d just chase me down once more, wouldn’t you?"

"Yeah, I’d get yelled at by Asuma if I didn’t." Mumbled the boy, "Chuunin aren’t supposed to fail missions."

"So, next time you’d probably just knock me out and drag me back, right?" Sakura asked. "Or something like that anyway."

"Ah... well, I hadn’t exactly thought about that," Shikamaru looked more than a little nervous as he answered since that had pretty much had been his original plan to begin with. "If I had to, yeah. I guess."

"In that case then, I don’t really have much of a choice, do I?" Looking off to one side, Sakura had an evil little thought - most likely another product of Inner Sakura’s twisted imagination. "Really now," She said, "I do so hope that you don’t get all your dates this way."

At Shikamaru’s scandalized reaction, Sakura just giggled to herself. It was, evidently, so ridiculously easy to embarrass him horribly.

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"Pork ramen please," At Sakura’s call, the man working the ramen stand nodded and began to scoop up the various ingredients needed for such a dish. "What’ll you have Shikamaru?" She asked after a moment’s silence.

"Eh..." The black-haired boy scanned the small menu that had been pegged up on one wall of the stand and mumbled to himself for a while before he finally answered. "Shrimp ramen I guess, if it’s not much trouble."

As the stand’s owner busied himself with preparing the dishes, both genin sat in silence. Eventually, however, it was Shikamaru who spoke first - in the manner of all people who can’t think of anything better to say.

"So..." he began.

"So?" Asked the girl he sat next to.

"Just, uh, just why did you run off anyway?" Sakura winced at the question, knowing that because Shikamaru had stated that finding the answer was part of his mission he would continue to question her until he received a satisfactory answer. "You said something about wanting to catch up?"

Staring hard at the counter, Sakura grumbled to herself before she finally answered. "It’s... Naruto. And Sasuke. Lee, Shino, Hinata - even you." She sniffled slightly as she continued her explanation. "Everyone’s grown so much, even Kiba, Chouji and Ino-pig too whilst… whilst I haven’t!" She exploded, turning to stare at Shikamaru. "I’m still the weak academy graduate whilst everyone else is... is..."

"Becoming stronger?" Shikamaru finished her sentence for her. "So you went out on a ridiculously stupid training excursion without telling anyone. I... I guess I can see why that makes sense."

Sakura twitched. "Ridiculously... stupid?" She growled, prompting her companion to edge away slightly in fear. "And just why is my training ridiculously stupid?" Sakura asked, leaning up close to the genius. Not that he exactly minded her being this close to him, he wasn’t as against girls as he often made out - as long as they didn’t seem ready to beat him senseless at least. Unfortunately, right now, Sakura did seem rather likely to want to perform such a violent act upon his person.

"You... ah... you didn’t tell anyone?" He began, "You didn’t take along any proper medical supplies," he continued, his voice getting a little stronger at each reason. "It doesn’t look like you slept properly, or ate properly for that matter."

Sakura winced and looked away as Shikamaru proceeded to recite a few more reasons for her stupidity.

"You’ve injured yourself several times in training and didn’t stop - don’t think I didn’t notice how you limped on the way back. That’s a pulled muscle in your calf at least, and we already know about the state of your hand." Now the genius genin was ticking the points off on his finger, just to irritate Sakura more no doubt. "You took the trouble to conceal yourself, which was good, but you forgot completely that by yelling out with each blow it made it possible for me to pinpoint you by sound. And, last of all, you’re training yourself in something you don’t really need to train in."

The last point caught Sakura off guard, "Huh? Wha-what do you mean by that?"

"You’re smart," Shikamaru replied, "Smarter than Ino, yet you don’t bother to train that intelligence. Instead you try to improve your skills which, at present, probably can’t get much more effective until you grow a little more and gain some extra muscle mass."

"Oh, and what would you suggest then, being the all high and mighty genius that you are?" Sakura asked, being sure to sound as sarcastic as she could possibly manage.

"Well, you could start by learning as wide a range of low level Ninjutsu and Genjutsu as you can. I remember that you got top marks in Chakra control, but tested fairly low as to the amount you could produce." Came the answer, "So the bigger jutsu types would probably knock you out faster than being hit in combat. But if you could push your intelligence into mastering a lot of rapid fire jutsu, you could blitz opposition with so many different techniques that they can’t defend against them all."

"I... see."

"... you could also change back to your last perfume too, that one suited you bett- ah!" Shikamaru shut up suddenly, mentally cursing his mouth for running off without waiting for him to think about what he was going to say like that.

"Do... do you really think it did?" came a soft voice from where Sakura sat, "I changed it because I heard that Sasuke liked the smell of the new one better..."

"And... you honestly believed that?" Snorting to himself, Shikamaru idly watched as the stand’s owner bought their dishes over to where they sat. "You’re in Sasuke’s group, if he ever stated a preference you’d probably be the first to know, right? So why do you follow all the gossip about him?"

Sakura stood up, fists clenched, the fires of determination burning in her eyes. "You’re right! If I’m to get Sasuke-kun to like me, I’ll have to be the first to know everything about him!"

"That’s... not what I meant." Shikamaru whispered. "... No. forget it, I give up. It’s much less hassle if I don’t bother convincing you otherwise."

Sakura, all afire with joy and determination, bent down and surprised Shikamaru by grabbing his shoulders and planting a quick kiss on his forehead. Before the poor boy could actually make sense of what had just happened, Sakura was practically skipping down the street, intent on some Sasuke-related goal.

Shikamaru, on the other hand, just sat there - a faint flush trying to make it’s way up his face. "Ah..." He gently touched the place where Sakura had just kissed him and gulped slightly. Suddenly he shook his head to clear it and turned to look at his meal. As well as the one Sakura had left behind.

"That’s one thousand four hundred yen." Stated the stand’s owner, his voice rough. "Since the girl ran off, I guess you’re paying."

"... damn." Shikamaru cursed under his breath as he reached inside his jacket and pulled a wad of notes from a pouch hidden there. "That girl is nothing but a pain in the neck." He grumbled, placing the notes on the counter, whereupon the owner happily took them.

"Most girls are," he stated, "but then, they can also be the greatest thing in your life."

"Yeah..." Shikamaru breathed, once more touching the spot Sakura had kissed.

"Heh, sounds like you got it bad kid." The man laughed and handed a smaller wad of the notes back to him. "Tell ya what, I’ve changed my mind. Just ‘cuz you remind me of how I was when I was your age, I won’t charge you for the meal she ran out on. Just, next time, make sure she sticks around to at least taste it, okay?"

The black haired boy sat upright and stared at the man in shock. "Next time?" he asked, his voice a little wild. "There isn’t going to be a next time!"

"... Whatever kid, you just keep telling yourself that."

End chapter one.

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So. I bet you all thought I was dead. Again.

Well I’m not! So ha!

This was written in response to a pairing challenge by Kinumi (Whose passion for unusual pairings matches my own with ease) to write a Shikamaru x Sakura fic. Within two days. Technically.

Granted, this was done on the third day, but I didn’t do any work on the second day anyway so I guess it evens out. =P (Admittedly, I wouldn’t have been able to post this up in the place where the challenge was set on the second day anyway, which is why I didn’t do any work.)

This also turned out to be long. Long enough that I had no way to make it into one fic in that time. Instead I decided to try this as a multi-chapter thing. Though I promise it’ll be no-where near as long as Betrothal ^^;;

- Lackey H, typing, typing, typing through the great script of life.