Summary: Four-year-old Ino breaks her arm. Shikamaru is a sweetie-pie. Plus a flash-forward to present. Extremely fluffy and very cute. ShikaIno.

Pairings: ShikaIno.

Note: Extremely fluffy. Very (hopefully) cute. It begins at age four and ends when they're older.

If you don't like this pairing then you'd be something of an idiot if you read this anyway. If you want to flame then I'll go ahead and copy/paste this warning in reply. Please don't be silly.

After the sound of the crash there was a moment of silence and then Ino's loud crying startled Shikamaru from his light nap in the grass. Shikamaru quickly caught sight of Ino huddled at the base of the nearest tree and he hurried over. "What happened?" he asked, kneeling in front of her.

"I fell on my arm!" Ino managed in a wavering voice, tears streaming down her face.

"You aren't supposed to be climbing the trees," Shikamaru said, "You'll get in trouble-"

Ino cried louder, cutting him off. "I hurt my arm, it hurts!" she held it out so he could see it and they both stared at it for a moment. Her wrist was extended too far and the little joint was already turning purple and swelling up quickly. "Oh!" Ino whimpered, "It's all wrong! What's wrong with it?"

Shikamaru racked his four-year-old brain, searching quickly for the answer so that it would get her to stop whimpering.

"I think it's broken," he said, rubbing the side of his head.

Ino stared at him for a moment before she burst into horrified sobs. "I broke my arm?" she wailed.

Shikamaru's expression was serious to begin with and it immediately became even more so. Ino tried cradling her arm. "Do I- do I get a new one?" she cried.

"M-maybe," Shikamaru said, startled. He hadn't really thought about it.

"Where?" Ino sniffed, holding her bruised and swollen arm against herself.

Shikamaru thought about stores, where he would go with his mother to pick up everything that they needed for their house. He couldn't remember having ever seen an arm, or any other detached body part there. He knew that lots of stuff happened at hospitals, though. "A hospital," he suggested.

"They'll give me a shot!" Ino wailed.

"I'll go with you," he offered.

"They'll give you a shot too!"

Shikamaru didn't relish the thought, but Ino was too upset and he had to do something to make her feel better. "I'll hold your hand when they give you your shot and you can hold my hand when they give me my shot," he said.

Ino sniffed while she nodded. "And you squeeze tighter the more it hurts, right?" she said.

Shikamaru felt relieved that she wasn't crying so much anymore. "Uh-huh."

Ino carefully stood up. "And then we'll get lollipops. And stickers."

Shikamaru let her take hold of his hand with her uninjured hand and she squeezed it tightly. "You think they can get me a arm that looks right?" she asked.

He wasn't certain, but didn't want to make her sad. "Yeah. They probably have lots there," he said as they walked back out of the range of the forest and back into Shikamaru's backyard. Yoshino was already out the backdoor and she hurried quickly over as she caught sight of Ino's injured arm, held carefully still at her side.

xXxXxXxXx

"You're such a baby," Ino said dismissively as she pressed her fingers on the bloody bruise on Shikamaru's shoulder.

He winced, even as Ino activated the chakra necessary to make the wound fade away. "How does that make me a baby?" he asked with irritation, "You complain worse than that when you get injured."

"If you don't want an injury then you should move faster," Ino said, examining his skin to make sure that it was just a bloodstain left and not the wound still. "You practically let me get that hit in."

"I didn't want to make you feel bad for how badly you were fighting," Shikamaru muttered, which was patently untrue. He was stronger than she was, but she was faster.

"Yeah right," Ino scoffed, "You allowed me to break your shoulder. How very generous and gallant of you, Shikamaru." She patted his shoulder and then moved on to his face, with the nasty bruise adorning his cheekbone.

Shikamaru scowled. After a moment of silent annoyance he bit back with, "Yeah, well it is true that you don't typically inspire generosity or gallantry."

Ino rested her fingers on his cheekbone for a moment and locked eyes with him and then she made a face at him and laughed. "You're such a sore loser, Shikamaru," she said as she swept her fingers affectionately down his cheek and then picked up his hand to care for the gash slowly oozing blood on the back of it. "But seriously," she began with the clear tone of lecturing. "You need to pay attention while you're moving. I'm not technically trying to kill you, so it isn't a big deal when we're training, but against actual enemies you are going to get your ass kicked."

"If you don't turn faster after landings, you'll end up with a blade in your side," Shikamaru countered, "which you still need to heal," he continued, letting his fingers trail just above the lightly bandaged wound below her ribs.

"You're so sweet," Ino said, leaning forward and kissing his cheek.

A/N.

Hey all. It's me. This was kind of beta-ed by The Laughing Fool, but she was mostly just reading it, so if you see any mistakes please let me know so I can correct them.

I am totally in love with how cute and adorable the children versions of Shikamaru and Ino are.

Also to my readers of my other fics that have sent a few messages, don't worry, I haven't abandoned them.

Please review, I can use some encouragement in my life.

Thanks!

Update: With only one review this is really signifying to me that this really isn't something that needed to be published, so I'll be taking it down soon. Just sayin'.

-CR