She watched him from the park bench overlooking the deep incline of land, grass and flowers. Since the hill was steep, it was impossible to see her from where he was, unless he was Hyuga; which he wasn't. At first she had thought that he was a discarded garbage bag, but upon realization that the 'bag' had been in fact human, and a guy no less attracted all her attention to him. He lazily gazed at the sky, unbeknownst to him her staring eyes. Maybe it would have been better that way, that he never found out that she was there watching him. It would ruin her reputation.
A little more than an hour later, she took a quick glance at her watch. It was time to go home. He would be coming up soon too, anyways and she couldn't be founded out by him. She took one last peek at him and stood up to leave. She walked the long route back home. Her father would be expecting her by now. The sun had dipped low into the sky. Her father didn't like her being out after dark, alone.
"Where have you been, Ino, your father was starting to worry." Her mother said to her upon her stealthy entrance through the back door.
"Sorry, mom, I was just walking around to get some sun and lost track of time." Ino took a pork-bun from the kitchen counter and made her way upstairs to her room.
"Well, Chouji called to tell you that Shikamaru had said that the three of you were wanted at the Fifth Hokage's office first thing tomorrow."
"Okay, thanks mom! Tell dad I'm here."
Ino walked to her room at the end of the hallway. She fell back on her bed, bun still in her mouth as she chewed on it. She thought about how the days were going by so slowly and that the warm weather was finally getting to her. Every one of her friends were either too busy or on a mission to see her.
Since Sakura had been a little more than preoccupied nowadays being the Fifth's protégé and all, their meetings hadn't been long and she found that it wasn't as interesting as when they were younger and they had Sasuke-kun to talk and obsess about. Growing up as a ninja wasn't all it was made out to be. There were many missions for her as well, of course, but her talents were always joined with Team Ino-Shika-Cho. Most thought that without her male teammates, she'd be helpless in battle. So, many of her solo missions were strictly those of information retrieval.
"I guess, everyone grew up and I'm the only one who didn't." Ino whispered her thoughts with a sulky frown.
It must have happened about the time after Shikamaru had passed the Chuunin Exam and was forced to train more on his own and Chouji went on frequent training trips with his father that she started to feel left out. Even Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke went with their own respective Sanin. All the while she stayed in Konoha and worked at the family's flower shop. Her working at the flower shop brought in more business since genin boys were always tripping at the door trying to buy flowers from her; they probably ended up giving the flowers to their mothers. She was still doing the same thing since she was twelve, save for a few risky missions. It annoyed her to think that, let alone admit it. In the last six years, she hadn't changed. She was still blonde, pretty, and bossy.
These were the same thoughts she was having when she first saw him on the hill, earlier that day. He'd look so serious and contemplative. She could tell that he wasn't sleeping because as he lay she saw him manipulating his shadow in different directions and making dark shapes fall over flowers and rocks.
"Shikamaru," Ino sighed, placing a forearm over her eyes, "Stupid Shikamaru. I don't want to think of you!"
She always knew that she had feelings for the young Shadow Manipulator, but it wasn't until recently that she acknowledged those feeling to be more than a crush, more than teammate affection, and more to the likes of an infatuation. Yet, just like Sasuke, he didn't notice her. Not while he spent most of his time with Temari of the Sand during the Chuunin Exams. Ino didn't dislike Temari, she realized that they were alike in personality and, therefore, they were able to relate to each other. Although, having Temari around him more than her distressed Ino. Temari had told her in their last meeting three months ago that she and Shikamaru didn't share anything more than a platonic relationship. But, Ino knew quite well, platonic relationships can often lead to much more, if given the time.
"Great, now I'm in another unrequited-love situation. Why the hell do I always fall for them?" She lifted her arm and brushed a tear away from the corner of her eye and stood up.
Ino decided that since she had to be up before dawn the next day for the meeting with the Hokage, it would be best if she got some sleep instead of think about her atrocious love-life. She walked to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face, her nightly ritual, before dumping herself on the bed once more and falling into a fitful sleep.
XXXX
Shikamaru Nara sat up in his bed at four-fifty-five in the morning. He stared at his alarm clock across the room and cursed it.
"What's the point of having an alarm clock, if you wake up before it rang?" He thought.
He threw his blanket from his body and rolled off the bed and crawled across the room to turn the accursed alarm clock off before it fully woke him up.
He already knew that this day would be quite—
"Troublesome," he sighed deeply.
A meeting with the Hokage in the morning would be such a drag considering that she'd still be hung-over from the night before. It didn't take a genius to deduce this much ahead of the day. After taking a quick shower and changing into his uniform, a small stone came careening into his bedroom window. The force of the stone caused it to break through the glass and leave a long crack from one end to the other.
"Troublesome," Shikamaru groaned in agony. Now, he'd have to fix the window again. And windows weren't cheap in Konohagakure; since the village housed many ninjas and windows were in great demand.
He looked down to see Chouji's face full of worry, as he should.
"Sorry, Shikamaru, I forgot my own strength, again." Chouji chortled nervously and lifted the bag between his hands. "Want some chips?"
"Gosh, Chouji, why couldn't you have knocked like a normal person?"
"I didn't want to wake your parents up. Besides, when are you going to move out anyway? You can always roommate with me, Kiba and Shino. You just have to ignore the bugs and the dog smell."
Shikamaru jumped from his window beside his best-friend. "Don't forget about the chip bags lying around."
"Yeah, that too," Chouji laughed heartily. "So, just tell me when you want to move in and I'll help you pack."
"I'll think about it, big-guy, but right now we have to pick up Ino-hime, or else she'll turn into a dragon." Shikamaru joked.
"You know, Ino doesn't like it when you refer to her as 'Princess Ino' or a 'dragon'. It hurts her feelings." Chouji, the kind hearted boy he is, said reproachfully.
"I'm kidding. I don't really mean about dragon part. It's just sometimes more factual than it is a joke, ya know?" Shikamaru muttered. "Let's get going before we're late, okay, Chouji?"
The short walk to Ino's house was unexciting, all five minutes of it. The two men jumped over the Yamanaka's fence and stood under Ino's bedroom window. Chouji bent over to pick up a small pebble to throw at Ino's window.
"Wait a minute, Chouji; I'll do it, okay?"
Shikamaru then stretched his shadow to Ino's window and manipulated it to unlock the window's clip. He then turned to Chouji to give him the 'ssshhh' sign, pressing his finger to his lips.
"You stay here, and we'll be out in a minute." That said Shikamaru jumped into Ino's now open window.
Chouji grumbled at his best-friend's evident distrust of him being quiet in Ino's room. He sat where he stood and took out a back of chips and proceeded to munch on them.
Shikamaru landed softly in Ino's room. It had been the same since all three of them were kids and their fathers had forced him, Chouji and Ino to become friends. She still had the light-purple walls with the pale yellow, stencilled flowers lining around the room. It was over-the-top feminine and the
room smelled it too. He usually hated that creamy, vanilla scent that most women nowadays had, but Ino's room smelled good with subtle floral fragrances which suited her.
Shikamaru shook his head in objection. Where was his discipline? He couldn't waste anymore time dawdling when Tsunade-sama was waiting for them. He turned to where Ino lay asleep on her bed. He watched her for a moment: the rise and fall of her chest; the great disarray her bunched, blonde hair was in; and the innocent, angelic features of her face. He stared at her, sighing at her unobtainable, beguiling beauty. He'd already known a long time ago, that he wasn't good enough for her. He sighed heavily, again.
He was knocked out of his reverie when a strategically aimed, crumpled chip bag came hurtling in through the window hitting him at the back of the head.
"Psst, what's taking you guys so long?" Chouji whispered loudly from below.
Shikamaru rubbed the back of his head and walked towards the sleeping Ino-hime. He leaned forward to tap her on the shoulder when her eyes shot open. He would have yelped in surprise if he weren't a trained shinobi.
"What the—Shikamaru?" Ino rubbed her eyes. "What are you doing in my room?"
"Uh, I was just trying to—"
"Hey, Shikamaru, Ino, what's taking you guys so long?" Chouji was getting restless. "I'm coming up there if you don't get down here soon!"
Shikamaru bowed his head out the window to tell his best-friend that he and Ino would be down soon. As he did this, Ino was in the washroom to change into her uniform and fix herself up. It was
embarrassing to have Shikamaru see her all frumpy and bad-breathy. Ino took a firm, determined hold of her toothbrush.
A few minutes later, all three reunited outside as the sun was crawling over the horizon. They realized that they didn't have much time left before the Fifth was expecting them. They didn't want to keep the drunkard waiting for them. That was the one thing one must not do as a shinobi of Konoha: piss off the Hokage.
They got to the observation tower in record time in spite of Chouji slowing them down and Ino insisting that she would kill her two teammates if Tsunade-sama were to throw something at her beautiful face for being late; like she had last time. The Fifth Hokage was definitely not a morning person, especially when she was drunk the night before; which is more likely than the sun coming up the next day.
XXXX
"Come in!" Tsunade's voice echoed from within the thick double doors.
Shikamaru, being the leader of the group made his way in first followed by Ino and Chouji trailing behind the two of them. It was going to be a long morning, the three thought as they shuffled into the office.
"Good morning, Tsunade-sama." Ino expressed humbly.
"Ha! Yeah, right it'd be a good morning if I didn't have such a killer hang over!" The Fifth stood up and slammed a thick folder onto her cluttered desk. "Here's your mission. The Kazekage asked for
Konoha's help in their fight against a group of rogue shinobi from the Sound Village. They don't seem to be the with Orochimaru's cohort, so I don't see much of a problem from him. But, since the Kazekage has to go to the Hidden Mist Village to sign an alliance treaty, they need all the protection they can get while he's gone. With our treaty allying us with Hidden Sand we have to respond.
"It so happens that quite a few Sand villagers and shinobi have been found dead and much of the village's livestock has been slaughtered as well, they can't turn a blind eye to them anymore. The Kazekage's siblings are going to be aiding you on this mission. I'm depending on the three of you because of your exemplary teamwork. Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, ma'am!" They replied.
"Get going then." The Fifth sat back into her chair and yelled: "Shizune, where's my sake!"
Team Ino-Shika-Cho decided to meet at the Village gates after their packing. It would probably take at least ten days, this mission.
TBC
A/N: I would really appreciate any input of any sort. I take constructive critisms pretty well, I'd say. Bring it on!
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