Relaxation Maybe?

[Nara Shikamaru]

Shikamaru watched as Ino said that he did not have a better plan at the moment and walked a bit of head of him. It was for the better seeing how he could possible use this time to escape this mess. However, he knew what Ino would do if he skipped out of this. He would probably not get a moment rest in a month if he left her dealing with Sasuke and there was no way in hell that he was going to live dealing with all that for a month. It was bad enough to hear his mother in the morning and bad enough to listen to Ino on missions and dealing with Ino for that long made his hair on the back of his neck stand up.

”How troublesome,” Shikamaru muttered under his breath as he watched Ino thrown the kunai at what appeared to be Sasuke and moved up in a tree. He raised his eyebrow slightly and watched the scene unfolding. He took another glance at the Sasuke in the clearing and duck down behind a tree. His eyes narrowed on the Sasuke believing that if it was the real Sasuke he would be on the move and not just standing around like that.

He sighed slightly and shock his head. He could not believe that Ino was falling for this. He had a few choices keep hiding until the real boy showed up or stop Ino from making a full of herself. If he stopped Ino then it would alert Sasuke to his present in this little fight between them. He felt the first was the most promising and what Ino had in mind for now. There was no reason to stop Ino for making a fool of herself in front of the boy. She wanted him to capture Sasuke in his shadow and she said nothing about not letting herself be caught in something stupid like this.

He also felt by laying low at the moment would serve Ino right for involving him in this little fight anyways. All he wanted to do was to take a nap and that was ruined in the long run now. He bent down to his knees and leaned his back against the tree. He covered his mouth and tried to hold back a yawn that did not work in the long run of things.

[Uchiha Sasuke]

The clone reacted to the kunai that was coming at it by deflecting it with a kunai from his pouch. He looked to where it had come from and tried to spot the girl within the trees. Though it found nothing, but when the girl started to rush at him and yell about some simple flower girl he turned and looked at the girl. He did not move since it was useless for him to do so. She was going to find out the hard way that this was not some easy match that she was going to win because of her little speech and annoyance. The clone took the hit and turned to smoke.

Sasuke had been watching for the tree that he was in. He saw the kunai thrown and watched the clone deflect it easily. He then turned his attention to where Ino had come from. He knew he had to act fast in order to catch her off guard. He slipped his hands into his pouch and pulled out two kunais and two exploding tags. He placed a tag on each kunai. He was not going to allow her to pull the same trick on him that he had just pulled on her.

He made another clone and threw one kunai to where she had come from and another to the clearing. He jumped quickly to another tree branch as his next come started to charge from where he was just at. He did not like to play this game of cat and mouse and would rather be up close and fighting, but at this point in time he needed to know that the girl annoyance was in the clearing and not some clone acting like the real one.

He had not seen Shikamaru hiding where the kunai was at yet. He still believed that it was a one on one score that they were trying to settle among themselves. He had no idea why Ino was taking so much from him, but he had found it annoying in the long run of things. He wanted to just to beat the hell out of her, but knew that was going a little overboard. He would not even give the idiot the time of the day and Naruto got on his nerves faster than anyone that he knew.

The clone smirked and went to punch her when he got close to her. ’Yea, I still think you are some dumb flower girl!” The punch was aiming for her midsection on her left side.

[Yamanaka Ino]

The Sasuke in front of her deflected her kunai with a pouch, as to be expected from Sasuke. Still, since it was just a distraction it didn’t matter that much. The yelling as she attacked him, however, seemed to have drawn his attention, but as she punched him it disappeared. Darn, that was just a simple clone. Sasuke really did like his clones. Chances were this meant he was going to try and counterattack her soon. Pulling out a kunai, she prepared to deflect any kunai or shuriken that came towards. She soon spotted another kunai coming towards her, and another where she was at. Sasuke probably expected her to have done a clone as well. Hmmph, just a way for him to waste kunai then.

However, the kunai had an explosive tag attached to it. That made it a priority to avoid, and over all that was a pretty easy thing to do. Jumping off towards the side, she dodged the explosion, only getting some dirt and grime on her. Normally she would complain, but right, she was seeing it as a badge of honor. Out of everyone at the Academy, she had to be the one lasting longest against Sasuke. If he respected strength and skill, that had to mean something right? Even if she didn’t win the fight, if she could prove to hold her own against him then maybe his ego would drop enough to at least admit she had skill. That was the way to get to him!

Of course, the next thing she knew, Sasuke was coming at her, calling her a dumb flower girl. He was aiming right towards her on the left. Since escape wasn’t much of an option, and she need to prove herself more than just a hit and run fighter to him, Ino turned towards him to instead face him. Bracing herself for impact, Ino reared back her own fist. She was going to show him how ‘tough’ she actually was. More importantly, if she could catch him in one spot here in the clearing, Shikamaru could catch him in a trap. Aiming towards his face, she didn’t even bother to respond to his comment. She was just going to let her fist do the talking for once (yes, she would admit herself that was probably a miracle…).

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[Nara Shikamaru]

Shikamaru looked up slightly when he heard the explosion behind him. Now these two were playing with fire and explosions. His day was just getting better and better now. He felt like he wanted to just leave at the moment and the two of them work out the difference since it seemed like it was already happening. He was sure that Sasuke had not shown himself exactly to her either so it would be waste for him to even think about going out there and becoming a target for fire. He would have to really consider this options that he now faced.

He could go and find Sasuke in this massive area here that seemed like he wanted to burn or he could coward away and deal with Ino another day. The latter seemed like a better choice for him right now. He could handle Ino when she was not being all bossy or something, but handling someone that had more desire to fight than he did was something he rather not face at the moment. He sighed again and shook his head.

He slowly got up and looked over his shoulder to see Ino launching her own first towards Sasuek’s face. He shrugged some and raised his hand and waved at her. ”Being burned does not suit me. I will take your nagging voice any day. Caio.”

He had made up his mind in what he was going to do and now he just needed to get away from here before she decided to chase after him or Sasuke wanted to turn him into crisp for even thinking about helping the blonde. He had to admit to himself that her plan could have worked if he was not such a lazy person, but it was his nature to be just that and he was not about to go change that because of someone nagging him. He would do what he always did when someone started to nag him about something. He would go find someplace to take a nap. That was exactly what he planned on doing now. He just he should find a new place to sleep since Ino already knew most of his other places and being caught there seemed like a wasteful thing to do.

[Uchiha Sasuke]

Sasuke watched has Ino dodge his exploding tag and smirked somewhat. It was what he had expected from the girl and he would have to admit that this giving him something to do, but he was not going to change his views of the girl just by this one little battle. He still considered her weak and her flowers boring. There was very little that was going to change his mind about her and everyone around them. He might be gaining a bit of respect for her on the battle field, but it was going to be awhile before he would really consider her a real threat to him. For now her notch had been bumped up one step higher than Sakura’s on his list of decent fighters in their graduating group and Sakura was right above Naruto.

From where he was sitting right now he looked up to see Shikamaru standing up and waving at Ino. He blinked slightly and narrowed his eyes at the girl. Was she going to use him to get to him? That was low and weak now and her notch had now gone back down to below Naruto. He watched his clone to take the punch in the face and disappear again. Clones where not helping matters much anymore and now he did not even feel like fighting her and proving a point to her since Shikamaru was here now.

He thought for a moment and jumped down into the clearing. He watched her closely and looked back over to see Shikamaru leaving the area without a care in the world about what just happened between them. He was not sure what to say at this point, but he was not going to play her little game like this for much longer. He was done with her.

”For a moment there your fighting level went up above Sakura and Naruto’s, but after seeing him leaving like that and calling out to you. You drop. You are much worse than Naruto. He would not have to drag someone else into his own fight.” He knew that was a blow to her, but at this point he didn’t care. He slipped his hands into his pocket and started to walk away from her in the other direction.

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[Yamanaka Ino]

The punch connected with another clone, leaving Ino alone once again with nothing but time to wait for Sasuke. Just standing there, panting a little from being tired out, she waited for a sign of either Shikamaru or Sasuke to do something. Kunai at the ready, she heard Shikamaru saying something to her….that he was leaving. Ino was about to yell something at him, but realized he had a point. This was a fight that she had gotten into herself; even with all her complaints and arguing, it really wasn’t Shikamaru’s fight to have. Besides, if it she wanted to prove her point, it would be best to do it herself. She wasn’t going to give him a hard time on it; no, she was able to admit that she was just being a really stupid with all this….

Still, she kept herself ready; Sasuke probably still had an attack planned so she had to get defensive. He jumped down, however, and didn’t attack. Instead he talked, and as he talked, Ino felt a mixture of rage and, admittedly, some agreement. Yeah, she had brought Shikamaru into the fight in a moment of weakness; she was just completely obsessed with trying to win over Sasuke. At the same time though, Shikamaru didn’t do anything at all; everything in the fight was her own doing. Furthermore, shinobi were supposed to be able to realize when they need help; that’s why they had teams. Still, dragging her friend into a petty, personal fight was kind of low….

With his speech done, Sasuke began to walk out in the other direction, but Ino of course had to make sure that she had the last word of it all.

”You know, Shikamaru didn’t do anything so I still ended up fighting on my own. But you know what, I don’t care that you think I’m lower than Naruto. I’ll admit it was petty of me to drag Shikamaru into the fight, and that the fight itself was pretty petty. But it’s just so damn FRUSTRATING on how you don’t let anyone in; you almost never talk, and when you do it’s to insult someone. You sit by yourself in a corner, brooding angrily. So I saw this fight as a chance of maybe getting you to finally open up, one way or another. And in that desperation I dragged a friend into it. So if you think I’m lower than Naruto, fine, I probably deserve it; I won’t let you have the satisfaction of thinking you just got me good. But I’m still not ready to give up on you yet Sasuke…..”

Oddly enough, that actually made her feel a little better to say all that. Apparently admitting that she was low was kind of ‘freeing.’ She also kind of enjoyed the fact that not letting it get to her like he planned was pretty invigorating. Not letting him get to her probably would take out the fun of his insults, and probably prove more of a point than not doing so. After all, someone as cool and calm as Sasuke would like someone who was cool and controlled. Finally, hopefully she gave out a pretty decent reason for WHY she had gotten so messed up during this fight. If Sasuke didn’t respond, fine, she had her say, and she was going to head out herself….

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