HI everyone! OK, this is my first Shikamaru and Ino fanfic, so please be nice!

Also warning, I am VERY VERY VERY behind in the Naruto manga, and I don't know what's happening right now, so again, bear with me. This story is alternate universe, sort of. It all still takes place in Konoha, with ninja's and stuff, and all the characters are still there, Ino's story just changed. Hope you enjoy! Don't own Naruto or the characters.

"Hey Shikamaru, what's with the necklaces?" Naruto blurted out.

Shikamaru looked up in surprise. "Huh? Did you say something?"

Shikamaru, Naruto, Choji, Kiba, Lee and Neji were all eating at the ramen Ichiraku, (Naruto's suggestion of course.) Neji and Shikamaru were talking about some smart thing, that Lee was too busy to care about. Apparently Naruto, who was upset for being left out of the conversation, (though Kiba argued it was his fault for not being able to keep up.) and tried to make a conversation of the first thing on his mind.

"Those two necklaces. I've been meaning to ask you about them, you always were them. I was just wondering why?"

Kiba frowned. "That's true, and it's two of the same necklace. That's kinda dumb."

Suddenly, Shikamaru's face darkened slightly, as he turned to face the window. Choji, who had been stuffing his face a moment ago, stopped abruptly, and was eyeing Shikamaru wearily. "It's no big deal. Just a habit. It'd be a drag to only wear one."

Naruto frowned. Of course that wouldn't be enough for him. "That's a stupid answer."

Shikamaru just shrugged. "Well that's the answer you're getting." Naruto frowned for a moment. Suddenly, he reached forward, grabbing one of the necklaces, and yanking it off of Shikamaru's head. "Hey!" Shikamaru cried out in protest, reaching forward to grab it back. But Naruto held it just out of reach, jumping out of his seat, and dangling the necklace between his fingers.

"Ohhh, looks like cloud boy got a little secret. Come on fess up!"

Shikamaru glared at him. "Come on Naruto stop being a drag, just give it back."

Naruto shook his head. "Nope not until you answer the question."

"What's the big deal Shikamaru?" Kiba interrupted. "Just answer his question."

Shikamaru was silent for a moment, his eyes glued on the necklace. He stammered slightly trying to figure out what to say. "I-it's, um," finally he gave up. "Ugh, Naruto just forget it, it's no big deal, just give it back!"

"If you want it back so badly come and get it yourself you lazy slob!" Lee munched silently on his ramen noodles, as he listened to his two friends bicker in the corner.

"What's so important about it?" Naruto said, tossing the necklace object between his hands.

Shikamaru glared at him from his seat. He hadn't gotten up from his seat, but Lee could tell he was angry. "It doesn't matter just give it back, you're being a nuisance."

Naruto rolled his eyes at him, studying the necklace. "I just don't get why you would want something like this! I mean you wear it all the time, but you've never mentioned it. And you have 2 anyways, so what does it matter if I take one? Seriously Shikamaru, its stupid for a smart guy like you to be wearing something so girly and stu..." suddenly, Shikamaru jumped from his chair, his fist colliding with Naruto's face. Naruto dropped the unknown object, as he fell back to the ground.

"Dude what the heck!" Naruto blurted out, holding a hand to his cheek, which was starting to swell. "I was just joking around, chill."

Lee's mouth dropped in surprise. Sure Shikamaru was annoyed, but to go so far as to hit Naruto? That was so unlike Shikamaru. Mostly because of the unnecessary effort it would take. Kiba smirked over his bowl. "Serves you right for being annoying!" Kiba called jokingly, Naruto glaring at him.

"Well, if he'd just answer my question, I'll stop!" Naruto protested.

"Don't." All eyes turned to Shikamaru, and suddenly, the joking mood was over. "Don't ever call it stupid. Never again, you got me?" Shikamaru's voice was low, sending a chill down everyone's spin. Not able to think of a comeback, Naruto simply nodded. Without another word, Shikamaru walked out of the restaurant, the group was left in silence. As he was leaving, Lee caught a better look at the necklace. It was a simple design, with three large beads on it. Each had a different character painted on, Nara; Yamanaka; and Akimichi. Akimichi, and Nara were easy to figure out, but who was Yamanaka?

"What the heck was that all about!?" Kiba asked. "He just went all monster face weirdo on us!"

Neji raised an eyebrow at him. "Monster face weirdo?"

"Hey, not all of us are genius prodigies."

Choji sighed, speaking up for the first time. "You got to be nice to him; he's really sensitive about that thing."

"Why is he so protective of it Choji-kun? It's just a necklace." Lee called out.

"I myself find it rather strange." Neji added. "Could it possibly be a family thing? I know that the Akimichi and Nara clans are rather close. You yourself have a necklace the exact same. But what I find odd is that you only have one, where as Nara-kun has two."

Choji was silent for a moment. "It's...a long story."

Naruto frowned, walking towards them, and returning to his seat. "Well hurry up and tell us, we don't have all day!"

Choji was silent, for a moment, watching as his friends gazes became fixed on him. He reached forward, and slowly started eating his ramen, as he tried to figure out the words to say. "The Akimichi, Nara and Yamanaka clans all have a tradition. When one child from each clan turns ten years old within the same year, the three of them are immediately bonded as teammates. The three become so close, that they eventually become almost closer then family, each would easily give their lives for the other two." Choji's eyes slowly drifted to the floor. "Or at least that's how my dad describes it; he was in a "triangle bond." as we call it, with Shikamaru's dad, and Yamanaka Inouchi. The three are each given a necklace, representing the bonds to each other, and the bonds of the clans."

"Well that explains the necklaces." Neji said nodding.

"But wait a second." Naruto said, struggling to keep up. "You said this happens when there is one from each clan right? But it's only you and Shika; there is no one from the Yamanaka clan."

Choji was silent for a moment. "Me and Shikamaru, used to be part of a triangle bond. But not anymore."

Kiba frowned. "Wait a second, there was another one? There were three of you guys?"

Choji nodded. "Triangle bonds don't work the same with only two, I and Shika are still close, but we can't really call it a triangle bond anymore."

"Wait wait wait." Naruto said, holding up his hands. "We're 17, almost 18, and I never knew about this?"

Choji shrugged. "We don't usually like to talk about it."

"Well what happened to this other guy?" Kiba asked.

"It wasn't a guy." Choji said his eyes on his noodles. "It was a girl. Ino Yamanaka."

Kiba raised his eyebrows in surprise. "A girl? No wonder I never met her, the two of you probably chased her away."

"Ino Yamanaka." Neji said thoughtfully. "I do not believe I recognize the name."

"No you probably wouldn't. You see..." he stopped for a moment to look all of them in the eye. "Ino, she went...missing when she we were 10 years old."

The air seemed to get a lot heavier after that. After a long moment of silence, Naruto spoke out. "What happened?"

Choji was silent for a moment before continuing. "It was only a month after the three of us were, bonded I guess. At first, it seemed like a normal day, we were out in the meadow, Shikamaru was lying in the grass watching the clouds, I was eating my chips, and Ino was picking flowers."

"Typical. Of course the girl is picking flowers." Kiba muttered,

Lee hit him in the head. "Of course! The love for flowers matches the inner beauty of a woman that is just waiting to be released."

Neji ignored Lee's mindless rant. "Please Choji, continue."

Choji nervously scooped another bit of noodles into his mouth before continuing. "That day, Shikamaru asked Ino to come over and watch the clouds with her, rather than picking flowers. At first Ino said no, saying that she much preferred picking her flowers. Shikamaru said she was being stupid, and said that picking flowers was lame and no one who wanted to become a ninja should pick flowers. Ino got really mad at that, and she and Shikamaru got in a big fight. it was just kid stuff, I'm pretty sure neither of them really knew what the fight had started as to begin with, but suddenly, Ino got really upset, and ran away. At first, me and Shikamaru said nothing. But then later on, we decided to go look for her. We went to her house but she wasn't there. We searched all over town, looking everywhere we could think of, but there was no sign of her. The Yamanaka clan sent out people to search for her, but after six months, they still couldn't find anything, eventually, they gave up, assuming she had fallen off a cliff somewhere. Her parents at first didn't accept it, but after a while, they also had to agree."

Choji swallowed a bit, before continuing. "But Shikamaru, he refused to believe it. Both of us, we couldn't accept the fact that Ino had died just like that." He paused for a moment. "Each triangle bonds group, are given a hawk. The hawk is specially trained only to transport messages between the three of them. The hawk is able to find any member of the bond no matter where they are. If one of the members die," he paused to show his necklace. "The hawk is trained to take the necklace from the body, and return it to the other members of the bond."

The group was silent for a moment, letting Choji's story settle in. "so, the second necklace..." Naruto started.

Choji nodded. "Every day for a year, me and Shikamaru would send out the Hawk, giving it messages to give to Ino, telling her we were sorry and wanted her to come back. It would always return the day after, the message still in it's talons. Exactly one year after Ino went missing; the Hawk came back, with her necklace." Choji starred down at the counter, the memory of the event haunting him.

"I can't...I can't believe I never knew." Naruto said.

"We've known both of you for so long, I never even imagined." Kiba agreed.

Choji didn't acknowledge their comments. "I still remember Shikamaru's face, when the Hawk returned with the necklace. I was the first to see it, because I was better with animals than Shikamaru. I had already started crying, when I turned and held the necklace out to Shikamaru. He just starred at it, refusing to move. I could see the denial in his eyes, as if he were screaming at himself. It's not true! It's a trick! She's still out there, don't believe it! You can't give up on her, she still needs you!" unconsciously, Choji reached up, and whipped his eyes.

"So Shikamaru finally accepted it?" Lee asked hesitantly.

Choji shook his head. "He didn't I didn't either." He sniffled a bit. "When you lose someone, you can't just accept it, even to this day; I don't think Shikamaru believes that Ino is dead." Choji turned, and starred after where Shikamaru had walked out. "The anniversary is in a few months. Each year, both of us, we go visit her grave, and send off the Hawk again, in hopes that it will find her and bring her back."

"You actually believe she's still alive, after all this time?" Kiba asked, gently.

Choji turned to him, his eyes were red. "I don't know what I'll do if she isn't. She has to be alive." Choji turned again to look at the clouds. "She has to be."

The young blond walked down the echoing halls, her shoes clacking on the stone ground. She came to the door at the end of the hall, and knocked on it respectfully.

"enter." A gruff voice replied. The girl soundlessly opened the door, and closed it behind her. A large man was sitting behind a desk, a large assortment of different weapons were hanging on the wall behind him. His eyes glanced up, "how'd it go?"

The girl walked forward, and sat down in a chair facing him. She flipped her long, silk blond hair behind her shoulder. "Pretty boring to be honest. I got to him with no trouble at all. Although, I did get the chance to dance a bit, and there was one guy there, that was a really good kisser."

"And I can assume that he has been dealt with?" the man interrupted.

The girl rolled her eyes. "You're such a grouch. Yeah the guys dead, ok? Why do you never care to hear about the fun stuff?"

Ignoring her comment, the man reached forward, handing her a portfolio. "You got another assignment."

The girl groaned. "Already? I won't even have time to polish my nails!" even so, she reached forward, taking the portfolio. She took a moment to read the first page. "Konoha? You serious, that's so far!"

"Should be easy enough to get to." The man said, ignoring her complaints. "They want him dead within 3 months."

The girl frowned, "that's a short amount of time for such a distance." She looked at the picture of the man. "What'd this guy do anyway, that they want him dead?"

The man looked up at her. "It's not your place to ask questions. You just do the work we give you."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine fine whatever. Can you at least tell me the name of the guy I'm after?"

The man turned back to his work. "His name is..."

Ok there we go! It wasn't very good, sorry; hopefully the next chapter is better! Please review and no flames please!