An Extremely Awkward Problem pt. 2
It had been a slow and extremely uncomfortable two days since our hero and heroine became our heroine and hero. They had barely mastered going to the bathroom, which had proved to be a challenge for the both of them…there’s a first time for everything!
Ino had only left the apartment once, to return to her parent’s house to gather up her family technique manuals, which she now spent most of her time perusing. Shikamaru, also not bothering to leave his residence any more than he had to, was almost in constant practice, on Ino’s instruction, with his mental chakra control. Thus far, he had managed to perform a weak mental confusion technique. Unfortunately, he was often halted in his practice, as he would run out of chakra extremely fast, not being able to gain complete control yet.
This was how the days passed, with Ino cooking a few crispy meals and them sleeping, poor Shika being reduced to the couch, despite his complaints that it was only hurting Ino’s body.
“Oi, Ino. Thought I appreciate your cooking meals and all, I’d appreciate it even more if my hands weren’t covered in burns when I get back inside it…” Shikamaru mumbled as he watched Ino suck his burnt finger, which had gotten splashed with hot broth a moment before.
Ino shot him a glare and carefully poured two bowls of miso soup and set them on the table next to the rest of the meal.
Shikamaru picked at the vegetables, trying to stay away from the new food item before him.
“It’s an omelet, they’re good. I make them at home all the time. If you eat it with the rice, it’s even better.”
“I know what an omelet is, Ino.”
Ino only shrugged and began to nibble at her food.
They ate in silence, which was becoming the norm now, neither had much to say to the other anymore. However, it was doubtful that their thoughts were as blank as their speech was.
Shikamaru washed dishes while Ino continued to peruse the manuals. (they agreed that Ino would cook and Shikamaru would clean up after.)
Their longstanding silence was broken by Ino, sniffing the air around her curiously. Eventually, she realized that the odor she was investigating came from her own body. “Wow, boys can really start to stink after a couple of days…” She commented.
Shikamaru blushed and frowned.
“Well, we haven’t really bathed in a couple of days, you know. We should probably take showers or something. I don’t like being filthy, either.”
Ino’s face turned bright red at the thought.
“No way.” She said coldly and turned back to her book.
“Ino, it’s not that big of a deal, you know. I mean, we have to go to the bathroom, showers aren’t all that different.”
Ino huffed and continued to face in the opposite direction.
Shikamaru dried his soft hands and pulled a strand of Ino’s long hair out of his face.
“Look Ino. It needs to just be done. If you want, we can go together…would that make you feel better? To see your own body?”
Ino blushed a deeper red and slumped over.
“You need to decide if you would rather me wash your body or you do it, with my hands. Either way, we’re going to end up seeing each other, there’s no way around it. Remember that it was your technique that did this in the first place, you shouldn’t have done it if you weren’t prepared for any possible consequences.”
Ino nodded and rose to her feet.
“I guess you’re right. I’ll go first, since you’re dirtier.” And she hurried back towards the bathroom, avoiding his eyes at all costs.
Within minutes, Shikamaru heard the unmistakable sound of the shower running and sighed.
“This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me in my entire life…I’m taking a shower with a girl and my mind isn’t even there to witness it.”
X x x x x x x x x xX
Ino just stared at her reflection in the mirror as the room started to fill up with steam from the hot water. She looked down at her dirty clothes and pulled off her T-shirt, letting it fall to the floor. Next, she undid her pants, dropping them into the pile she was accumulating.
She paused, he fingers halting at her boxers and quickly retreating. Instead, she decided to pull out her ponytail, unwinding the strap until Shikamaru’s black hair fell around her face, tickling her shoulders with their light touch.
She caught her reflection in the mirror again, this time, looking herself up and down, inspecting.
Damn…who would’ve known that Shikamaru was so…sexy? Especially under all of those loose clothes he always wore. And why does he always wear his hair up? s**t, he almost rivaled Sasuke with it down!
Ino shook her head, willing the thoughts away and remembered her ‘mission.’
She took a deep breath, shut her eyes and pulled the boxers down, adding them to her pile of fabric.
Cold.
‘Just get in the shower. Don’t look down. Eyes straight ahead. No big deal’ She thought to herself as she stepped into the warm water.
She hadn’t been in for more than five minutes when she heard the door open and a voice call out to her.
“Oi, Ino?”
“Wahh! Shikamaru! What the hell are you doing!”
“Hey!” He yelled as he got pelted with a bar of soap.
“You can’t just barge in here!”
“Why not, baka? It’s not like I haven’t seen MYSELF in the nude before!”
Ino paused and remembered her situation.
“Oh. Sorry. Reflex.” She squeaked.
“Geez…”
“What did you want?”
“Just…don’t use any of that girly stuff on my body, alright? I don’t want to smell like a girl.” He mumbled from behind the curtain.
“Trust me, it would be better than how you were smelling before.”
“Whatever.”
He closed the door behind him as he left.
Ino was able to finish her shower in peace, and went behind Shikamaru, using her sweet-smelling conditioner sparingly on his tangled hair. She marveled at the firmness of his body, his muscles well built by his rough lifestyle, as she scrubbed with his shower wash, which smelled surprisingly good. Like a mixture of various forest aromas.
She got out, wrapped her lower half in a towel, feeling strange with her torso exposed. (Not normal for a girl.) It was easy to brush his hair now, after being lightly conditioned.
She left the bathroom and went straight to his bedroom, clothing herself and hanging up the towel before heading back out to the living room, not bothering to pull his hair up.
“My turn.”
“No nasty thoughts in there, buddy.”
The shower started up again. Shikamaru didn’t pause as Ino did in undressing, but it did take him quite a long time to figure out how to unhook the tiny clasps of her bra. Nor did he pause to gawk at himself in the mirror, like any typical male would.
He showered quickly, shampooing and conditioning her hair, as he thought necessary, and washing her body, trying not to think about the fact that he was cupping Ino’s perfect breasts in the process.
He clumsily wrapped her body in a towel and made his way, still wet into the bedroom and rummaged through the bag of clothes Ino had brought. He dressed himself, not paying any attention to the matching of the clothes he pulled out, again spending a great deal of time clasping the bra and walked out to the living room.
“I guess I don’t need to make you change, since I won’t be leaving this house for a while, so you can go unmatched. Come here.” She said, eyes closed as she held up a brush.
He sat down on the ground in front of her and let her run the brush through his long, blonde hair. Once she had pulled a couple of tangles out, it actually felt kind of nice.
“Aren’t you going to pull my hair up?” He asked in a relaxed tone.
“Nah, I like how it looks down, you should do it more often.” She answered calmly.
“Fine, then I’m leaving yours down too.”
“It’s your body.” Ino chuckled.
Shikamaru smiled and leaned further unto Ino’s lap, sighing contentedly.
X x x x x x x x xX
“Shikamaru!” Ino called from the kitchen, she was halfway through making dinner and Shikamaru was reading the last page of a manual. He dropped the book and stood, to see Ino standing in the archway, holding a green scroll out to him.
“s**t.” He took the scroll from her and broke the seal, reading it.
“You’re summoned to the office of the Hokage for a mission brief. Rank B. With Neji, and Tenten. Ten minutes.”
“You’re summoned or me?”
“Well, technically, me. But you’ll be the one to go, of course.”
Ino’s shoulders dropped and she took of the apron she had on, folding it over the back of a nearby chair.
“Don’t worry, as long as Neji’s going, You’ll be fine. And it’s only a B mission. Come back and tell me details before you leave.”
Ino nodded and closed the door behind her, leaving Shikamaru to pace around the kitchen, nibbling at Ino’s half-prepared meal.
“Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Neji, and Tenten.Once again, you have been summoned on this mission. To retrieve Uzumaki Naruto. The little s**t left again on his search for Uchiha Sasuke, and I want him back. The brat just won’t listen to me, I told him we’d send out a squad when the time is right. You know the drill. Shikamaru will be your leader, listen to him. You leave in two hours from the main gate.”
Tsunade looked furious as they excused themselves from the office.
“Not again…I say we beat the crap out of that kid when we find him, so we won’t have to go out on this stupid mission again.” Tenten whined.
“uh, I have to stop by the house for something real quick, I’ll meet you guys at the gate in two hours.” Ino said, bounding off.
“Oh, pssh. You’ll be fine; these missions are a piece of cake. Have Neji locate him, he’ll have gotten about 2 miles by now. You’ll just have to double-time it to catch up with him, it should take you about two days. Once you do, try to talk him into coming back, if not, just use the Kage Mane on him until you’re back to the village. Use only a small amount of chakra, so you’ll last all the way back.”
“Why does Tenten even have to come then? It doesn’t seem like she likes the assignment very much.”
“Tsunade likes sending her because she beats Naruto up a bit on the way home, it makes up for her not being able to do it, I think.”
Ino nodded, trying not to laugh.
“Alright, practice the Kage Mane real quick.” Shikamaru said, walking to the other side of the room and facing her.
Ino thought for a minute, remembering the signs and clasped her hands.
“Kage Mane no Jitsu!”
Her shadow stretched across the room, latching onto Shika’s and she walked in circles, her captive mimicking her every move.
“You have no idea how good it feels to not be on the receiving end of this for once.” She smiled as she cancelled the technique.
“Don’t get too excited, that’s only the most basic level of my techniques, you’d need a bit of practice before you could perform anything higher.”
She stuck her tongue out and headed to the kitchen, eating what was left of her dinner.
“Well, maybe I should practice them then, since you’re going to be learning almost all of my techniques. And who knows how long we’re going to be stuck. It may not hurt to learn some higher techniques.” She called from the kitchen.
“Alright, time to go!”
“Be careful; don’t kill my body off or anything. I don’t want to stay a girl forever, you know.”
Ino scowled at him, crossing her arms.
“Fine, fine, sorry, and I wouldn’t want you to die either.” He sighed. “I thought you already knew that though.”
She left for the gates, waving behind her at Shikamaru, who stood in the window, watching the boy until he was no longer in sight.
Waterbender Khyna Community Member 
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