#lislemons

Tart and Sweet

by lislemons

Rating: General Audiences

Fandom: Naruto (Anime & Manga)

Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Nara Shikamaru

Words: 21,532

Chapters: 2/2

Published: 2025-01-04

Author summary:

Shikamaru finds himself worried over his inability to form a crush on anyone. As his best friends, Ino and Choji take it upon themselves to create a love strategy for him. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to get him to be interested in anyone, Shikamaru thinks the strategy is a failure. The fact that Sakura sticks around after is not related. After all, it would be too troublesome to have a crush on Ino's closest friend, right?

My thoughts:

Oh my fucking God, this was absolutely sweet, there are no words to describe it. It's by far one of my favorite ShikaSaku fics. Shikamaru's entire thought process is absolutely fantastic. InoShikaCho friendship in its max splendor. Sakura is so cute. And I can not express how amazing the realization of feelings and what comes after that is. I loved it, no doubt.

Ending quote:

thank you!!! 🩷

the blood-sharing thing is insane but the funniest part is that mark doesn’t even need to go that far because he is literally an investor in wearoptimo, an australian biotech startup that makes microwearable patches. like little adhesive sensors that sit just under the skin (above pain receptors, so no needle drama) and quietly track hydration + heat-stress biomarkers in real time.

so that means hydration curve, electrolyte balance, signs of heat strain, and (depending on the model) early cardiovascular load. the patch uses microelectrodes that interact with the interstitial fluid under the skin and sends the data to an app.

anyway just thinking of the idea of mark microchipping oscar like a very expensive, performance-grade golden retriever

galex is literally like if you went down a checklist of shipping tropes and ticked every box. childhood friends? ✅ there was only one bed? ✅ (probably more than once tbh) mutual career boosts? ✅ (alex got george into karting, george got alex into williams after red bull iced him) throw in that suspicious little dinner date in monaco this year and it’s like the universe is writing fanfic for us

Slow burn

A++++ this is the good stuff, I love it when there's 100k words of build up just for a kiss. Tbh this used to be my bread and butter writing as well, and I think I need to get back to that. There's just always so much you get fleshed out about not only the relationship but the characters lives outside of the relationship as well with slow burn because it's got the time for that, it's amazing.

Unrequited Love

C I actually like this a lot in theory, but it's so hit and miss on if it's done well so I really need to trust the author to really make is satisfying. I am a big fan of tragedies and unhappy endings so if this fits into that little trope cluster I am very very happy.

Thank you, anon and @lislemons, for the ask. ✨️💐🧸🩷

I have three! One on each wrist (script from my Mom and Grandmom), and two flowers on my shoulder that will eventually become a flower sleeve, which will eventually become two flower sleeves!

Ask me anything!