absence makes the heart go...???

Chapter 3

Team Asuma does not return from their mission before Naruto and his team are sent out on one, yet another easy one. It seems that that's all that the village has to deal with these days; piles upon piles of super tedious, simple missions, that keep everyone busy, but don't offer enough challenge to really be that much of a problem.

It's not like he would normally spend any time with Shikamaru in the lull between missions, but, for whatever reason, Naruto has been dying to get caught up, even with there not being much to get caught up on. He and Shikamaru have considered each other pretty good friends for several years now, but he supposes they just got a little closer on their shared mission, and that's why he wants to see him so much.

Whatever the case, he finds himself thinking about Shikamaru a lot lately, to the point that both Sasuke and Sakura have said that he seems distracted during training, and Kakashi has scolded him for that. He never thought that he was that distracted, but if everyone else is noticing it, then maybe it's worse than he realizes, not that he knows the reason for that to begin with.

He just hopes that he will be able to see Shikamaru again soon, and that they'll be able to talk more, like they did on their mission. Maybe they can get in some training together, since it's been a while since the last time they sparred, and then they can watch the clouds together, since that's what he seems to prefer to do. They can talk, just like they did on their mission, and that is what Naruto looks forward to most of all. He knows that he has to be patient, but it already feels like he's been waiting forever.

"You've been off your game for a while," Sasuke will say to him. "Be careful, or I'll surpass you so quickly you won't even see me."

"Honestly, Naruto," Sakura will sigh, "are you even paying attention anymore? What's gotten into you lately, anyway?"

"Training is important, so please try not to let your personal life distract you too much," Kakashi will add, sometimes even going so far as to give him a full lecture. They talk to him so knowingly that it's almost as if they already know what's gotten into him, but he doesn't see how they could, when even he can't figure it out. It must just be them trying to talk with superiority, or something like that.

~X~

"Do you think something happened between Shikamaru and Naruto?" Sakura asks Ino one day, when she can't take it anymore. They've only just gotten back from their most recent mission, and Sakura went to find her friend, running their family's shop for the afternoon, to try and investigate further.

"What, you mean on our last mission together?" Ino asks. "Have you noticed something fishy too?"

"Like how all Naruto ever talks about is Shikamaru? Like how that's pretty much the only thing he told us about his mission?" Suddenly, Sakura grins, leaning closer over the counter. "He barely even found time to tell me about you and Lee."

"H-hey, now! We're here to talk about those two clowns, not about me!" Ino protests, and Sakura laughs.

"Oh, Ino, you can be so obvious sometimes. You know, I would tease you about it, but Lee's not a bad catch. He'll treat you well, that much is for sure, and he always puts his all into everything he does, so you two probably make a good match," she says, but then her grin grows. "It's just nice to know you finally gave up on beating me, pig."

"Oh, whatever! He used to drool over you, so I think the fact that I stole him away is enough of a victory on its own. Maybe he realized he prefers girls with normal sized foreheads."

"You wanna say that again, pig? I'll make you regret it."

"As entertaining as that challenge is, I thought you came here to talk about Naruto ," Ino says, getting the conversation back on topic. "So, he's been talking a lot about Shikamaru, huh?"

"When he talks. He's quiet sometimes, you know that's not like Naruto at all. But when he talks, it's always Shikamaru this and Shikamaru that, ever since that mission. He was so bummed out when you guys left, and when we had to leave before you guys got back," she says. "It wouldn't surprise me if he was looking for Shikamaru right now, with how impatient he's been."

"Well, he won't have any luck there. We were supposed to get a little bit of downtime, but Kurenai's starting to get to the point where she can't carry out missions until after the baby's born, so they made him fill in for her, and go on a mission with her team," Ino says. "You should have heard him whining about it, I can't believe how lazy he still is, after all this time."

"Wow, that's pretty unlucky. So, what about him ? Has he been acting weird since that mission too?"

"He was acting weird on the mission, honestly. I didn't really notice at the time-"

"Too busy with Lee?"

"Shut up, forehead. I didn't really notice it at the time, but they were together a lot, and Shikamaru's mentioned it a couple times. Mostly in passing, but you know, he doesn't talk a lot, especially not about other people that much. Usually if I'd give him shit for spending so much time slacking off with Naruto, he'd say it was the same for me and Lee, and maybe I'm looking too deep into this, but if it was the same -"

"Then that would mean he likes Naruto!"

"Exactly!" Ino nods, grinning. "Or maybe it goes even deeper than that. Maybe he doesn't even realize that he likes Naruto yet, and it's all subconscious."

"Well, I'm sure Naruto hasn't figured his feelings out yet. He's an idiot about pretty much anything that doesn't involve fighting, and if he did have it figured out, he wouldn't be this good at keeping it to himself. He'd be running around, screaming and freaking out about it, until the whole village knew."

"At this rate, the whole village will know, before he ever does. Before Shikamaru does either, he's totally clueless on matters of love."

"So you really think that's what it is?"

"I don't think it could be anything else."

"They'll probably be completely helpless without expert hands to guide them."

"If we're really good friends, we should help them figure it out."

"But it'd also be more fun to see how long it takes for them to figure it out on their own."

"Sakura, I like how you think."

~X~

So the two of them keep their discoveries to themselves, and Sakura continues to give Naruto a hard time during training, but does not try to push him too far in either direction. She doesn't want to take the fun out of things and help him figure it out, and even goes so far as to tell both Sasuke and Kakashi about this privately.

Needless to say, they already had similar suspicions regarding Naruto and his potential crush on the lazy genius.