Chapter Text
It starts when she’s five. At least, she thinks that’s the beginning. But maybe she was always like this.
She’s playing with Ino. They play together at the Yamanaka Compound most days, but today they’ve gone to the Nara Estate because they want to see the deer.
Shikamaru agrees to show them the Nara Forest, but only if they play Hunt & Capture with him and Chouji. Ino immediately starts yelling that she doesn’t want to play with stupid boys and she refuses to get dirty and that Shika is an idiot. Sakura is a little awed by how comfortable Ino is with the two boys; Sakura can’t imagine yelling like that.
But then Sakura shyly suggests that the game might be fun and Ino calms down quickly.
“Okay, Sakura,” she grins. “But only because you want to.”
Shikamaru lays out the rules. One person has to hunt down the other three and carry them back to base. Sakura recognizes that it’s the sort of game that shinobi teach to their children. It emphasizes tracking, speed and strength. Training in the form of play.
The first round Ino is the Tracker. She grabs Chouji, but he’s strong enough to wiggle out of her grip. She only goes back for him after she carries both Sakura and Shikamaru to the tree that serves as base.
Next Chouji is the Tracker and he is surprisingly fast. He snags Ino with no trouble at all and picks her up like a princess to carry to the tree. She giggles instead of struggling.
Shikamaru doesn’t even try to run. Sakura presents a bit more of a challenge and it takes him a few minutes for him to spot her hiding in a tree.
He clambers up onto branches after her and she yelps and moves higher. Ino and Shikamaru cheer her from the ground. Eventually he snags her and puts her over his shoulder to carry down. She can’t even be mad. She knows he gets teased like her, but she thinks that he’d be amazing to have in a fight. If the other kids realized that he was fast and strong, they would be impressed.
Sakura isn’t strong, but she’s fast. She runs down Ino when it’s her turn to be Tracker. It’s tough but Sakura manages to carry her over her shoulders to the tree and then she has to stop and pant for a minute with her hands braced against her knees. When she grabs Chouji he doesn’t struggle or make her pick him up and instead lets her wrap her arms around him and walk him back to the tree. She is grateful, if she could barely carry Ino than there’s no chance she could pick up Chouji.
She just catches Ino flashing Chouji an appreciative grin, apparently also glad that he’s not being too rough on her.
“One left,” shouts Sakura.
She runs off looking for Shikamaru and finds him leaning against a tree looking bored. She sneaks up carefully behind him, knowing that she only has one chance to actually grab him and carry him. He would probably let her win, like Chouji, but she wants the victory without help.
He yells when she jumps onto his back and twists. And, in a flash, she realizes that she’s miscalculated. He’s much stronger than she is and fast as a cat. And he spins her around too fast and suddenly her back hits the ground with a thump and he’s on top of her. He’s straddling her stomach and pinning her wrists on either side of her head.
And that is the first time that the world tilts for her. She knows that he’s knocked the air out of her, but there’s something in her reaction that is… more than just that. Her pupils are blown wide and her body feels boneless. Her breaths are coming in short little pants and she feels soft and exposed. She doesn’t struggle, just stares back and feels instinctively that this person will not hurt her.
She sees when Shikamaru recognizes the… something. His eyes are too focused. He keeps her pinned below him, breathing as hard as she is but he’s sucking air into his lungs.
The stare between them feels like it will never break.
She doesn’t quite understand what she’s doing when she tilts her head to the side and shows him her exposed neck. She just does it. He lets out the smallest growl and bends forward and he nips her where her neck meets her shoulder. It’s incredibly soft; it won’t even leave a mark. But she whines softly.
And that breaks the trance. He stands up in a blur. His cheeks turn to the darkest red and he stares down at her, while she’s still breathing hard in the grass. She hasn’t even moved her hands.
“INO!”
He turns and runs off towards the tree. And Sakura feels a moment of blind panic. She can’t explain this. She doesn’t know why she reacted the way that she did and she somehow knows that her reaction was wrong. Ino would never have reacted like that.
Will they leave her? Will her friends decide that she can’t play with them anymore?
But then she hears Shikamaru shout again, “Ino, come quick. Sakura’s hurt.”
Ino bursts into the clearing and finds Sakura sitting up in the grass looking dazed.
“Stupid Shika,” yells Ino and balls her hand into a fist. “Now she won’t want to play with us.”
Sakura can’t tell who looks more upset, Ino or Shikamaru. Ino looks furious but almost tearful and Shikamaru can’t seem to decide what he feels, glancing at anything but her with his face screwed up. Sakura stands up quickly and almost wobbles. Then she grabs Ino’s arm to stop the blonde from punching Shikamaru.
“It wasn’t his fault, Ino.” Sakura murmurs quietly. “I tried to sneak up on him. I should have realized that his reflexes were better than mine.”
Her blush now is entirely genuine, but she knows that Chouji and Ino will both think that she’s embarrassed by her failure to win the game. Shikamaru is still bright red and can’t seem to look at her. There is silence in the woods.
It’s wonderful Chouji who breaks the tension. He grins at her.
“You must be great at stealth if you got the drop on Shika. That’s my weak area. Dad says anyone would be able to hear me from five miles away.”
Sakura smiles at him. “But you’re the strongest! You should teach me to be stronger. I want to be able to carry Ino around too.”
She feels then tension leave Ino. And the blonde turns very quickly to give her a tight hug.
It occurs to Sakura for the first time that Ino cares a lot about their new friendship. That it is very important to the blonde not to scare Sakura away. And Sakura feels a glow in her chest.
“Let’s go get snacks,” Chouji decides. He sends a sidelong look at Shikamaru, who is still staring at the ground. “Didn’t your mom say she was making brownies?”
Shikamaru looks up quickly. “Yeah, the ones you really liked last time.”
“Perfect!” shouts Ino and she grabs Sakura’s hand and starts to drag her towards the house.
Sakura turns as they walk away and spots Chouji nudging Shikamaru, who still looks a little shocked. And then the bigger boy wraps his arm around the Nara’s shoulder and starts strolling with him after Ino and Sakura.
Back in the house Yoshino Nara feeds them all strawberries and brownies and big glasses of water.
Chouji manages to crack some jokes that make Shikamaru laugh and Sakura feels like things are mostly normal again.
Ino declares that since Shikamaru didn’t play the role of Tracker that he has to show them all a new training technique.
Sakura feels a thrum of nervousness, but squares her shoulders. Ino, Chouji and Shikamaru all come from illustrious clans and train every day with their parents or cousins. She’ll need to work hard if she’s ever going to be strong like them.
Shikamaru ends up taking them outside to an obstacle course. There is a ladder run and a wall climb and raised balance beams that lead to platforms to jump between. Ino yells her desire to be first and runs off to start and Chouji grins at Sakura before gesturing that she should go next.
Sakura smiles to herself. Ino was so determined to stay neat and clean an hour ago, but now she’s happy to get messy if it means she can show off. Sakura thinks Ino must the boldest person in the world.
The group ends up running the obstacle course four times. Sakura knows that she’s not as fast as the others, but she can tell that she’s not slowing them down. When they’re all done the group collapse in a circle and gaze up at the afternoon clouds.
“This is what we should have done the whole time,” says Shikamaru. He sighs and seems totally at peace.
Sakura looks over at Ino and the two girls make eye contact and grin. Ino rolls her eyes at the typical Nara laziness.
Later, when Ino and Sakura leave to walk home, Chouji says that he hopes they can all play together again. Sakura is eager and Ino is thrilled. Even Shikamaru is able to lazily wave them away and say that they can see the deer next time.
Sakura can almost pretend to herself that the strange moment in the Nara Forest never happened. Maybe they only reacted that way because she genuinely surprised Shikamaru and then he stunned her when he pinned her down. Maybe in their breathless shock they had done something silly, but without meaning.
She doesn’t want to think about the noise she made when his teeth scraped her neck, high and breathy in her throat.