Yay, it's done! This is basically the same thing as Devotion, only from Shikamaru's POV instead of Kaida's. Enjoy, and please leave a review! n_n~

Disclaimer: I don't own Shikamaru, Ino, or Choji, but I did make up Kaida, Wakana, and Hotaka. Plot comes from a sub-plot in River Secrets by Shannon Hale.

"…Always silent, smart, ready to give me anything."

"What a drag…"

"Just once, I'd like to see you not the perfect man. Why don't you make a fool of yourself for me?"

He had no idea what he had done wrong. It was extremely troublesome, but he found himself wanting to apologize for something he didn't even know what he'd done. He'd only wanted to know if she wanted an engagement ring.

Shikamaru packed steadily for the mission he was about to go on, shoving enough for about a month or two in one backpack. He would have time to think on this mission. And so would she. Maybe by the time he got back, she would have cooled down enough to apologize herself.

He shouldered his pack and began to leave, only to be stopped and systematically checked by his cranky mother, who had appeared for an unannounced visit, as she often did ever since he moved out of his parents' house.

"How long will your mission take?"

"As long as the guy needs us to set up his new place."

"Have you packed enough clean clothes for that?"

"Yeah."

"Have you packed your toothbrush? Toothpaste? Kunai? Shuriken?"

"Yeah." The weapons probably weren't needed for this simple a mission, though.

"Be on your best behavior at this man's place. Remember your manners…" Mrs. Nara continued nagging at him, then ranting on about other things. Shikamaru yawned lazily and half listened. She was such a pain. He had hoped that moving away from her and his dad would give him a break, but here she was, on the day he least felt like putting up with her.

When she was finally finished, Shikamaru was late. He managed to almost catch up with Choji when the Konoha exit came into view; Ino was just ahead. Someone else was waiting at the exit, too. Not surprising. Lady Tsunade had told them she was adding one more person to their squad for this mission.

"Hey, Ino!"

Shikamaru recognized that voice. More than recognized it. It was the voice that had haunted his thoughts not an hour earlier. What a drag. Kaida was the extra ninja added to their squad for this mission? So much for getting space and time away to think and cool down.

He saw her stiffen when she first caught sight of him – hazel green eyes flashing with an attempt to cover what she was thinking, red hair ruffled slightly in the breeze, slim figure belying how much she really ate. He wanted to hug her, tell her to relax, tell her that if she would only tell him why she was upset, he would abandon his usual laziness to fix it for her, if he at all could. But something stopped him.

'…Always silent, smart, ready to give me anything. … Just once, I'd like to see you not the perfect man.'

Perhaps it would be smartest to keep his distance for a little while, give her what she asked for.

So he watched indifferently as she painted on a bright smile. It was fake, he knew immediately, but he let the others do the talking for a while. Ino complained about the mission, Choji gave the bright side, Kaida reassured. It was probably time for him to add his own two cents.

"We'd better get started, then."

Kaida immediately looked away, losing her façade when he spoke. Shikamaru felt a pang at that, but told himself to have patience. Kaida was nothing if not stubborn. He continued, "The sooner we get there, the sooner Choji can sample his cooking."

"Right!" The encouragement came from Ino, who took the first step towards leaving the village. Kaida laughed and ran off ahead, while Shikamaru and Choji followed at Ino's pace.

Though the road was mostly straight, without any branches, the group sometimes reached a place where it branched off in two, sometimes even three, directions. Each time that happened, Shikamaru pulled out a map and pointed them the right way. He got teased a couple times by Ino and Choji that he had better not make a mistake. His response was a grunt or, once, "Would you like the map?"

The two swiftly declined. They did know how to read a map, but odds were they would take a wrong turn somewhere along the day-and-a-half journey and they would have to backtrack. So Shikamaru kept the map.

Kaida barely spoke to him all day. At lunchtime, she reached over him to grab a pair of chopsticks, gave an almost cheerful "Excuse me", and went back to her conversation with Ino.

Choji raised an eyebrow at him, catching on that something wasn't quite right. Shikamaru shook his head, warning his best friend to stay quiet about it, at least for the moment.

"Shoo, get in your tent," Ino demanded laughingly to the two boys. "I want a girl-chat with Kaida."

They had set up camp almost an hour ago, when darkness first began to fall. Several stars had now appeared in the sky, along with an almost full moon.

"Why don't you two go in your tent, Ino?" Choji countered, reaching for another marshmallow to roast over the fire. Ino slapped his hand away and shoved an unopened bag of snacks at him.

"Happy now?"

"Come on, Choji," Shikamaru interrupted before Choji could get in a reply. "You know how she can be if she doesn't get her way."

Choji rolled his eyes and crawled into the tent. Shikamaru watched Kaida for a moment, to see if she would say something, anything, to him, but she didn't even look at him. The fire was apparently more interesting to her. He sighed inwardly and followed Choji. 'This is such a drag,' he thought.

Choji broke open the bag of food Ino had given him. "Want to tell me now what's going on with you and Kaida?" He bit into his food and looked sideways at Shikamaru.

Shikamaru shrugged. "I wish I knew. Seems she's mad at me for being 'perfect'."

"She'll probably tell Ino during their 'girl-chat' what's wrong, if you feel like eavesdropping."

"And if they found out? That would be a situation even more troublesome than this."

"Mmf," Choji agreed, his mouth full.

Ino must have said something to Kaida the night before to make a change, because the moment he exited his tent the next morning, Kaida looked up at him and grinned. She still didn't seem to have forgotten their last conversation, and the smile wasn't completely genuine, but it was progress. Shikamaru yawned in response, irritated at the sun for making light penetrate the tent and wake him up earlier than he wanted.

Throughout the morning as they continued the journey, she even included him in a few of the conversations. He gave replies where it was expected and grunted at some rhetorical questions.

"This is the place, I guess," Shikamaru commented about an hour after lunch, standing in front of a large building.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ino asked, entering. Kaida laughed and followed her. Choji and Shikamaru were right behind them.

The first thing Shikamaru noticed was not the number of boxes. It wasn't the amount of things that obviously still needed packed. Nor was it the size of the room or the comfortable vibe it gave off. It was the sound of music coming down from the upstairs. What instrument was it? Shikamaru wondered. He had never had much of an ear for music. In fact, he was downright pitiful when it came right down to it.

'Just once, I'd like to see you not the perfect man. Why don't you make a fool of yourself for me?'

Kaida's words echoed in his mind and suddenly he had an idea. It topped the list of idiotic ideas for getting a girl to like you, and he really did not like the idea of doing as she asked and making a fool of himself. She probably wouldn't change much towards him if he tried simply playing for her. No, he would probably find himself doing it in front of thousands.

He would find a better way to get back in her good graces.

Just then, an old man exited the stairway and jumped in surprise when he saw the four ninja waiting.

"We're closed, sorry. I suggest coming back a few weeks earlier," the man said. Shikamaru slightly raised an eyebrow, but Kaida flashed the guy a grin.

"Actually, sir, we're the ninja from Konoha, here to help you move your things," Shikamaru stated. He twitched slightly as the music started tugging at his previous idea again.

"Ah, yes!" The man seemed to brighten considerably at the news. "Wakana!" he shouted up the stairs. The music stopped playing and moments later a young girl appeared, her red hair making him glance almost involuntarily over at Kaida's similarly colored locks.

She smiled politely at the ninja. "Yes, Father?" she asked, addressing the man.

"These people claim to be the help we hired," he informed her. He turned back to the four. "My name is Hotaka, and this is my daughter, Wakana."

"Ino, Choji, Kaida, and Shikamaru," Shikamaru replied. He gestured to each person respectively as he said their names. "Just tell us what to do."

Hotaka gave each one a job to do and set off to do a job of his own. Soon all six were working steadily. There wasn't much talking going on during that afternoon.

Once, Shikamaru found himself working directly beside Kaida, with Ino a couple feet away and moving farther every second. He wasn't quite sure how it had happened, nor was he sure if it was just his imagination that the silence turned stressed at that time. A couple minutes later, Kaida shouldered a box and moved away.

Maybe about six hours after they had started working, Hotaka announced that dinner was ready. Shikamaru finished what he was doing at the moment, then joined Kaida and Choji. He was followed soon enough by Ino and Wakana.

The conversation at dinner was casual, get-to-know-you-better talk. It lasted for another hour or so, then Hotaka roped them all into helping him clean up before shooing them off to bed.

The next day, Shikamaru found himself working near Wakana and Choji. Choji decided to strike up a short conversation and Shikamaru half listened.

"We heard music playing when we first got here. Was that you?" Choji asked Wakana.

She nodded and smiled at him. "The violin. I've been playing for years."

"You're pretty good at it."

"Thank you."

Wakana smiled again before moving on. Shikamaru's idea was still bugging him; he had thought a lot about it last night.

"Think she would give lessons?" Shikamaru asked, trying to sound like the answer didn't matter.

Choji gave him a weird look, then understanding dawned across his face. "You want to play for Kaida." It wasn't a question.

Shikamaru flushed slightly. "Maybe," he muttered.

Choji gave him a grin that seemed a cross between sympathy and excitement. "I think it's a great idea. I'm sure Ino would be willing to get Kaida to be somewhere else so you could practice." He snagged a bit of leftover breakfast. "And if you can't get her to leave the building, you could go practice somewhere else secluded."

Shikamaru shot him a look, but Choji just shrugged. "Think about it some more," he advised. Shikamaru muttered something under his breath that sounded like his usual catchphrase "What a drag" and walked off to work somewhere else. He didn't need to think about it any more, though. He decided. For Kaida, he would make a complete idiot out of himself. If Wakana was willing to help. And maybe Ino, too, as Choji suggested.

If this didn't work and get her to love him again…

It had to work. This was his new mission. Failure was not an option.

At supper that night, after everyone but Kaida and Choji (who were going back for fourths) had finished eating, Wakana brought down her violin and played for them. Her playing was happy, sad, lively, depressed, and somewhere in between when she wanted it to be.

Choji shot him a look; every word said in the conversation that morning was etched on his face. Shikamaru looked back at him calmly, then returned his attention to Wakana when he saw, out of the corner of his eye, Kaida watching them suspiciously.

He couldn't let her know what he was planning. She had often had the ability to know what he wanted to say without him having to say much at all, but he seriously hoped to keep her in the dark on this one. Surprise would be vital to his mission succeeding.

The next day, they finished packing everything in the building and prepared to move the stuff the day after. Shikamaru hadn't told anyone but Choji yet that he had decided to do it. He would tell Ino if Wakana said yes to giving him lessons. And that probably meant Hotaka would know, too. The number of people that would be in on it made him slightly uncomfortable. The more that knew, the more likely Kaida would find out. But it was a risk he would just have to take.

The day they began moving things to the new, bigger building, Hotaka arranged them in pairs: Ino and Choji, Kaida and Hotaka, Wakana and Shikamaru.

"Wakana?" Shikamaru asked on their first trip to the new building. He decided to ask her immediately, before he changed his mind.

"Yes, Shikamaru?" Wakana asked, turning to smile at him.

"I need a favor. The violin. Do you give lessons?" Shikamaru asked abruptly.

Wakana wrinkled her forehead. "I haven't before, but I suppose I can try. You want to learn to play the violin?"

"Yes. I don't have that much musical talent," he was being generous; he doubted he had any musical talent, "but I figure no time like the present to learn."

"You are doing this for Kaida?" she asked softly. Shikamaru glanced over at her, unable to conceal his surprise. She smiled ruefully. "It's pretty obvious you have feelings for her. Does she know?"

Shikamaru shifted the box he was carrying uncomfortably. "We actually dated for a few years. Something happened about a week ago, I'm still not sure what, and she hasn't seemed to let it go."

They reached the new building and Wakana fumbled around for her key. "And you want to impress her by learning to play the violin?" she asked.

'Impress' was too strong a word. He couldn't hope to impress her with his musical talent, especially if he hoped to deliver on the 'Why don't you make a fool of yourself for me?' part. "Maybe surprise," he suggested dryly. That was putting it mildly.

Wakana laughed as she pushed open the door. "I'll be delighted to teach you," she promised. Shikamaru found himself grinning in spite of himself.

He was still feeling slightly relieved when he returned to the old building. He saw Kaida narrow her eyes at his expression slightly, and he quickly tried to wipe away whatever expression was lingering – especially any hint that he was keeping a secret from her. He was relieved when Hotaka unknowingly provided a much-needed distraction by pushing a box into Kaida's arms.

That night, when everyone else had gone to bed, he knocked softly on Ino's door, praying she wouldn't get cranky on him for keeping her up.

When nearly ten minutes had passed without a response, he sighed and turned to go back to his own room. It was then that Ino's door opened.

"Good grief, Shikamaru, what do you want? A kunoichi needs her beauty sleep," Ino complained.

"I think you'll forgive me," Shikamaru replied, hoping his words were true. "I need to tell you something. Can I come in?"

Ino suspiciously widened the opening the door made and motioned him in.

He sat on the floor, no chairs being available. Ino closed the door and sat across from him.

"I'm going to be taking violin lessons from Wakana. I'd appreciate it if you could keep Kaida away from here when that happened."

It took Ino a couple minutes to fully absorb what he was saying. When she did, she let out a squeal. "You're serious!"

"Shhh, keep it down. Jeez, I knew it would be a risk telling you when the entire place is quiet enough you can hear a pin drop. This is such a drag."

Ino obediently quieted, but continued to grin widely. "Shikamaru, I can't believe you're doing this," she whispered. "But I'll keep Kaida out of the way. I'll just take her shopping for an entire day, if we can get a day off. Goodness knows she needs more outfits than what she brought with her."

"How do you know?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"I wanted something different to do with my hair, and I wanted to know if she had anything interesting I could use to pin it up," Ino replied, slightly defensively. "Anyways, do you want my help or not?"

"You're such a pain," Shikamaru sighed.

"I'll take that as a yes," Ino giggled. She turned serious again quickly, stood, and hauled Shikamaru to his feet as well. "But if you stay here any longer, I'm going to change my mind. Leave so I can sleep!"

Shikamaru left.

Wakana promised she would tell her father for him. In response, a week after they had first arrived, Hotaka arranged a day off.

"We've made a lot of progress," he announced. "Why don't you young ones use today to have some fun?"

"Yes!" Ino squealed. "Come on, Kaida; we're going shopping. We seriously need to do something about your wardrobe!" She grabbed Kaida and tugged her off before she could protest too much.

Wakana immediately slipped her arm through Shikamaru's and tugged him upstairs for his first lesson.

"You position your hands like this," she showed him. "Don't grip the bow so tightly." She reached over to force him to loosen his fingers slightly. "Relax, and sit up straighter." She showed him many different things he would have to know to get started. "Now try it for a few seconds," she urged.

He did, and she instinctively cringed. "No, like this," she pointed out.

By the end of the day, he hadn't made much progress. Wakana assured him that he would get better with more practice, though.

Ino appeared upstairs just then, loaded down with so many shopping bags Shikamaru couldn't even begin to count them all.

"I'm back, and Kaida will be returning soon with a purchase I 'forgot' at one of the stores," she giggled.

That ended the first day of lessons.

The next few weeks passed in a blur. They soon were spending all of their time in the new building, having finished transporting everything from one to the other. About once a week, or whenever they felt they could do so without raising suspicion from Kaida, Wakana took Shikamaru to the old building for about an hour and continued teaching him.

It was a really big pain setting up both the new and old stuff in Hotaka's new place. Each time they would set something up, he would tell them to move it somewhere else. And most of the time, he would have them move it back to its original place. Only then he would decide it looked better in another spot. Ino and Kaida looked ready to strangle him when he told them for the umpteenth time, "No, I think I liked it better where it was. Move it back."

It was probably Hotaka's constant nagging (Kaida would have exploded if she had a mom like Shikamaru's), but Shikamaru noticed Kaida seemed fidgety the more the days passed. She looked longingly outside more than once in a day, and once, when Choji placed an empty bag of chips on the table to throw away later, Kaida snapped at him to do it then. He gave her a surprised look and did so. She immediately seemed to realize what she'd done and apologized profusely.

Why couldn't she have been that way when she snapped at Shikamaru?

The next morning, Kaida was nowhere to be seen until they were just beginning to eat breakfast. Then she burst in from outside, her face aglow the way it only was when she had a great time training. Her hair was messed up and damp around her face from sweat, her eyes were bright, and Shikamaru felt love for her more strongly than he had since the start of this mission.

He renewed his resolve to get her to love him back once again.

Hotaka declared another holiday some time later. Ino had planned to get Kaida to go shopping with her again, but Kaida disappeared immediately after breakfast. Ino shrugged to Shikamaru and went to shop on her own.

"She's probably training," Choji remarked to Shikamaru. "I could go keep an eye on her and let you know when she's coming back."

Shikamaru shook his head. "Thanks, buddy, but I don't think that's necessary. She'll most likely be out all day, so I'll go find her a little bit before then and train with her."

"You're going to willingly train?" Choji raised an eyebrow in amusement. Shikamaru scowled at him and went to Wakana for his lesson. Choji entered the kitchen for an after-breakfast treat.

True to his word, after a couple hours of practicing after lunch, Shikamaru set off to find Kaida. He found her in a remote place in the woods just outside town. He came into sight and almost cringed as she barely stopped herself from hurling a kunai at him.

"What are you doing here?" she scowled.

He hoped she was only looking at him that way because he had surprised her, not because she was really that unhappy to see him.

"Thought maybe you'd want a training partner," he replied, glancing lazily around the small clearing. She'd really done a number on the trees around here. He looked back at her and saw her expression lighten ever so slightly. He took this as encouragement to continue, "It's a pain, training. But never training is an even bigger drag."

She cocked her head to the side as she considered him. Finally, she agreed, "Okay then."

So they trained together for the next couple hours. She seemed to be reluctantly holding back, whereas he spent much of the time dodging or blocking, adding in an attack of his own only when he saw a drop in her guard.

He tired pretty quickly, a consequence of not having trained since before the mission started. Kaida, on the other hand, didn't seem to be running out of energy at all, or at least not very quickly, even though she had probably been training ever since after breakfast that morning.

He could see a struggle in her eyes that didn't have very much to do with their sparring at the moment. He didn't comment on it, though, and kept up trying to steadily deflect anything she threw at him. After a while, her eyes cleared and she even grinned at him the way she used to back when they had trained together in Konoha. He was willing to bet she wasn't completely aware of the smile, though he didn't know for sure.

He delivered an attack and she surprised him by catching his hand and then just standing there, studying it. He waited, not sure if he should take advantage of her seriously dropped guard, or pull his hand away, or stay still. He wound up staying still.

"Your fingers are red where I think Wakana has calluses," she finally commented.

Shikamaru fought panic as he felt his face heat. She couldn't discover the secret; she just couldn't.

"Your point?" The words came out more roughly than he'd intended.

She shrugged and let him go. They went back to training until Shikamaru finally told her he was done. She surprised him yet again by asking him to wait for her. He did so while she ran around the clearing, picking up weapons from the ground and pulling them from tree trunks. Finally she rejoined him and they walked back together.

Several weeks and violin lessons later, the four ninja found themselves talking about the restaurant's opening ceremony.

Ino commented on how quickly the time flew, while Choji spoke wistfully of the restaurants back at Konoha.

Finally, Shikamaru interjected something, "Don't get too impatient. We'll get back to the village soon enough."

Kaida grinned and wrinkled her nose at the same time, making some comment about having to get dressed up. Shikamaru noted that she had been a lot less stiff around him and talking to him ever since he had trained with her that one time. He was glad. He still wasn't sure if she was over whatever had gotten her upset at him in the first place, but at least she was chatting and laughing with him about as much as she was with the others now.

He almost decided not to go through with his plan, wondering if more time would heal it completely. He mentally shook his head. No, better to do as he had planned, even if he got more nervous about it the closer it got to when he would be playing in front of more than a hundred. Or however many people showed up for the grand opening.

He returned his attention to the conversation, which consisted at the moment talk of clothes.

Not a week after this, the day of the grand opening came. Immediately after breakfast, Ino departed to hunt down the perfect outfit and Choji went into the kitchen with Hotaka to start preparing for that night. Kaida had about one foot out the door and Shikamaru looked over at Wakana, prepared for a last lesson, even though he knew he wouldn't be doing well that night with or without last minute practicing.

Kaida stayed.

She sat at a table in the dining area, her foot and finger tapping boredly. He wondered suddenly if it looked like he was replacing her with Wakana. The realization that it might look like he was now dating Wakana hit hard, though he knew he should have foreseen her reaction.

It took a lot of restraint not to spill everything to her right then and there.

He escaped into the kitchen to see if there was anything he could do for Choji and Hotaka, and when he glanced out at the dining area a few minutes later, Kaida and Wakana had disappeared.

When Ino returned with more shopping bags, the two girls still hadn't come back. Ino watched the door like a hawk for them, then pounced on them immediately when they got back. Shikamaru half watched out of the corner of his eye as she dragged them upstairs.

"You two had best be getting ready, too," Hotaka commented to Shikamaru and Choji.

Choji rolled his eyes. "Oh, please, we'll be done in half the time it takes those three to get ready."

Nevertheless, Hotaka managed to shoo them out and upstairs as well to get ready. They came back down in a matter of minutes and helped finish setting up just as the first guest arrived.

Shikamaru swallowed hard and tried not to appear nervous. There were so many people here. He had known that all along, but it was different to actually see it for himself.

Kaida sat next to him around the table, gorgeous in the dress Ino had talked her into buying. He hoped this would work. If it didn't, he would be made an idiot for nothing. His violin talent handn't improved much from the first lessons.

She turned to him and asked him a question. He must have answered reasonably, for she grinned delightedly and turned back to the others.

The evening passed slowly, agonizingly slowly. When Hotaka finally announced his violin solo, he wasn't ready. But he rose from his seat anyway and made his way to Wakana and Hotaka.

"Shikamaru."

He thought he heard Kaida whisper his name, but he didn't look back.

'Why don't you make a fool of yourself for me?'

He was doing it. For her. He accepted the violin Wakana handed him and concentrated solely on it. He didn't dare look up at her even once.

Finally, he ended and raised his head to look at her. What was she thinking? He had thought she would be surprised, and she was definitely that. And so was the rest of the audience. No one clapped. He didn't care. He just wanted to know her reaction, and she wasn't showing him much.

Tears suddenly streamed down Kaida's cheeks. She ran, tripped, continued running. She tripped more than once, but never fully stopped. He barely had time to set the violin gently on the nearest table before she tackled him in a hug.

"Yes, I'll marry you," she told him, smiling brilliantly through the tears. Mission successful. Shikamaru slowly grinned, then leaned forward to kiss her, ignoring the deafening applause that broke out.

Wow, this one turned out even longer than Devotion. :o
Now review! xD

Just a side note: I didn't actually intend for everyone except Kaida to know about what Shikamaru planned to do. It just kind of turned out that way. So now we're even more aware of Kaida's absolute obliviousness. xD;
Kaida: Hey, I've got an excuse! I was too busy trying to work things out with myself about Shikamaru to try and uncover a secret. *sticks tongue out*
Kaiti: Again, like at the top, I'd love it if you review! =D Did I managed to do Shikamaru justice? It was a lot harder writing from his point of view than it was just portraying his actions and words.
Kaida: Oh, sure, just ignore me…

EDIT: After I made both this fanfic and Devotion, Neji and TenTen 4ever told me about a song called Battlefield, by Jordin Sparks. It describes these fanfics nearly perfectly, if not completely perfectly! You're awesome, Taylor! 8D