Enamoured (Sasuke Uchiha)

XII

"Ino?" Shikamaru was surprised to see his long-time friend waiting for him on the other side of the door. Though the two were close friends, along with their mutual friend Choji Akimichi, due to their families having been close for decades, but she didn't come around often  because of her demanding job at the hospital. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk with you. Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure" Shikamaru stepped back, allowing the blonde to enter his home. "Want something to drink?"

"No, it won't take long," she answered as she followed him into the living room. She ended up sitting on the loveseat, while he ended up sitting backwards on a chair he pulled from the nearby dining room. With his chin resting on his arms, which were crossed atop the back of the chair, he asked, "What's up?"

"It's about Sasuke..."

Shikamaru sighed, "What a drag."

"Really, Shikamaru." Ino deadpanned.

"Go on," he urged, with a flick of the wrist.

"Okay, well, Sai and I were at Ichiraku's the other day, you know so we could spend some quality time together. He's always in that art studio of his drawing and I'm always at hospital, so when I get a day off you know I make him take me out and spoil me. Though I don't know why he took me out to eat there, I totally would have rather gone to-"

"Get to the point, Ino." He interrupted as she was getting off topic. It wasn't unusual for her to drift off and start rambling in the middle of something. Troublesome woman.

"Ah, right," Ino cleared her throat and straightened up. "Anyways, while we were eating, we saw Sasuke, but he wasn't alone. He was with some girl and a child!"

Shikamaru's eyes widened. "A girl, you say? Did she have dark hair with light ends and light brown eyes?" Ino nodded.

"Do you know her?" She asked, leaning forward.

In turn, Shikamaru leaned back, stretching his arms over his head and letting out an exasperated sigh. "I've seen her a couple times. She's his schoolmate from Oto; that kid is her son."

"Just a schoolmate?" Ino questioned suspiciously. "I don't buy it."

"Yeah, well that's what he told me and the guys." Shikamaru answered, but he could fully understand her suspicion. He had seen Sasuke with the girl far too many times and the way he looked at her was not the way one would look at a classmate. Not to mention the incident the night before when they were at the club, which he would definitely  not divulge to Ino. The less he involved himself, the better.

"Should I tell Sakura about it?" Ino asked after a few moments of silence.

"What? No way."

"And why not? I can't just leave her in the dark like that! What if they're not just schoolmates?"