Hello everyone to the anticipated sequel of Obsessed entitled Torn: Secrets of A Broken Marriage. I was going to give it a long gap between both stories but decided the opposite. Might as well continue it now while its fresh! Where we last left off Sakura and Ino had finally came face to face with blow to blow leading to her running across the road with Naruto getting the repercussions of her actions. What happens next? Enjoy the first chapter as the ride continues!
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
Everything happened so quickly. It was as if time had frozen over and Ino was witnessing it all fall apart right in front of her. Ino's eyes bulged out of her watching her husband's body fly over the hood of the speeding car and proceed to hit the roof of it until he finally hit the unforgiving road with great force. The car swerved and halted its tires hard against the pavement of the sidewalk that almost hit their mailbox at the end of the driveway. She almost lost her heartbeat at the horrific scene that had just played out.
"Naruto!" Ino yelled, trying to regain her strength after just falling from the top of the staircase of her house along Sakura. The blond limped her way over to the lawn of the house before her legs gave out and she fell to her knees. The pain in her body didn't stop her from reaching her husband and continued to struggle her way over to his body laying in the middle of the road with people now beginning to surround him and call for help.
Sakura scurried her way from the scene quickly, ignoring the same pain Ino was feeling trough her own body after she heard the cop cars sirens with the ambulances on its tracks. The pink haired vixen made her way trough different alleys, hearing the noise beginning to fade with every step she made. Finally running far enough barefoot, Sakura leaned against a brick wall of a building to catch her breath and to reconsider everything that had just went down between Ino and Naruto.
"How could my plan turn out this way?" Sakura tossed multiple answers to her question, wondering if she had really lost Naruto in the process of trying to win his love. She yanked her pink locks in aggravation and guilt, balling her fists and slamming them against the wall. Sakura closed her eyes trying to keep the tears from forming and draining out her eyes, as much as she hated that Naruto had chosen Ino over her, she couldn't help but to hope and pray that he was still alive.
"Ino!" Shikamaru opened up his car door that skidded on the sidewalk and ran over to Ino who was struggling to get back up on her feet. He didn't have a chance to say anything but her name once Ino spotted him and received the palm of her hand across his face. She tried to swing on him again but Shikamaru grabbed hold of both Ino's wrists, "Ino, calm down! I can explain, wait!"
The cops that had made their way to the scene within seconds had run over to both and separated them with as much force as Ino was throwing at Shikamaru. The cop had taken Ino by her arms towards the opposite direction of Shika which led her to see Naruto's body being placed on an orange stretcher. Ino removed the cops grip from her and leaped over to his body.
"Naruto, no! Please, please don't leave me, Naruto!" Ino cried out loud, gripping Naruto's shirt and pressing her face against his chest. "I love you, Naruto. I'm sorry for not trusting you, I believe you. We can make this work, Naruto. Just don't leave my side!" Ino's cries of pain made some of the witnesses around them begin to form tears to their own eyes as she clinched onto him tighter.
The paramedics placed an arm on Ino's back and continued telling her everything was going to be alright, that she just had to have faith in believing he was going to make it. Ino wrapped her body with her arms and further saw the paramedics place a gas mask over Naruto's nose and mouth and place him into the ambulance. Just as she had witnessed Shikamaru being placed not to long ago the night before. "Naruto.." Ino whispered, watching the sirens of the ambulance beaming all over the road and proceeding to drive off towards the hospital. The mental picture of Naruto's bruised face with a bleeding lip was forever engraved in her mind.
"Ma'am, we need to have a word with you" A female officer took Ino's attention off the speeding ambulance down the block, Ino turned to see her holding a little notepad in her hand with matching pen, "What caused this? Were you and your husband in a heated argument?" she asked, eyeing Ino's entire wardrobe that had been tore up at this point.
Before Ino could answer, she questioned what to reply first. Slowly looking around at the crowd of people now scrambling and going on about with their lives, Ino couldn't find the culprit of all this mess that had just happened. Sakura was nowhere to be seen even after leaving the path of destruction right in front of everyone to see. Ino knew she couldn't blame it on Sakura just yet without getting a clear explanation from Naruto first. That was, if he made it hopefully.
"It was an accident-" Shikamaru interrupted, stepping in from behind Ino after getting questioned by the male cop across the lawn. Ino was surprised the cop had left him out of his sight after he saw her swinging at him a minute ago, she almost felt disgusted in herself that she would do such a thing to him out of rage.
"Excuse me, I'm going to need the story in her own words-" The female cop placed a hand up to stop Shikamaru from further continuing his statement, "Now, Ma'am can you please answer my question. What caused this incident?"
"Officer-" Ino pondered all her answers coming to a blank and looked up at Shikamaru trough her watery eyes, remembering the moment they had at the hospital and even more guilt filling up her insides. "Officer, it was a accident. Me and my husband were in an argument and he ran out into the middle of the street to scare me off" Ino replied as if that was the truth, letting the officer give her a dead look back towards her and started writing her words into the notepad.
"He's my husbands best friend, he would never do this on purpose" Ino continued, looking down at her toes that were intertwined with the wet green lawn. The words just continued spilling out of her mouth, adding more and more into the hole she had buried. At this point, she just wanted it to be over and head over to the hospital.
"You know what, I'll leave this here. Me and the other officer are going to be in touch just in case." The officer replied, feeling an off vibe from Ino but never continuing questioning her motives, after all it was her husband and only she knew the emotions running trough her, "I suggest you head over to the hospital to check on your husband."
Ino watched the female officer head over to the other one who was inspecting Shikamaru's car and calling for a towtruck to make its way over to it, the windshield has been damaged along with the dented hood and broken headlights. Shikamaru watched them take photos of the scene of the car from all different angles, in complete astonishment at what he had managed to do to his own best friend.
"Ino, look-" Shikamaru started, looking back at Ino who was crying herself into her palms in silence. "Everything is going to be okay, I promise you" Shikamaru stood closer to Ino who broke free from her palms to stare at his coldly yet sincerely accepted of his words.
"Shika, I'm so sorry for hitting you. Please forgive me." Ino cut him off from comforting her, "I'm just a mess right now, I apologize, Shika" Ino's voice cracked as her words came to an end, continuing seeing Naruto in her mind the way he was laid out on the stretcher.
"Go get dressed in something comfortable, let's go see Naruto" Shikamaru suggested, Ino going along with it and both walking into the house that everything had just gone down in. Ino walked up the stairs of her house, slowly step by step as her legs continued to ache in pain. The blond couldn't help but wonder why Shikamaru was trying to even see Naruto after his side of anger came out of the hospital the night before.
"Does he need you?" Ino remembered Shikamaru question her and at this point, she was really wondering the answer to that at this point. Ino's heart ached with frustration and pain seeing her husband get hit by the car, but the fact is, he had suffered those consequences due to saving the very same woman who tried to ruin their marriage together. Either way, Ino was determined to fight for her marriage one last time. Life is so short and who knew at what time Naruto's own life was up.
Ino tried to remove the tight dress from her body but could barely bend over to take it off. The zipper on the back was far from her reach that her arms allowed because of the pain. The blond tried reaching multiple times before giving up and calling Shikamaru in for help. He walked up to the second floor and entered her room to see her back facing him.
"Can you please help me unzip this, Shika?" Ino awkwardly asked, not wanting him to lay another touch on her after the hospital incident between them that she was slowly sweeping underneath the rug. Ino felt his presence step closer to her body, placing his fingers at the top of her dress where the zipper remained.
Ino closed her eyes expecting him to try something foolish again but just felt his fingers slide the zipper all the way down to where it almost fell off her breasts. Ino grabbed onto it and pressed it against her chest, looking back at Shikamaru who was eyeballing her face to face with such a serious look. "Thank you, um, we can take my car. The keys are on the counter downstairs, I'll just be a quick second" Ino broke the silence and watched Shikamaru leave the room, something about him was completely off but he wasn't what was important right now. Naruto was.
Sliding into a pair of gray sweatpants and a tight white blouse with flip-flops, Ino managed to rush down the stairs the best way she could to spot Shikamaru in the driver's side of her car rummaging with the radio's buttons. He opened up the car door from inside and watched her slowly get into the passenger seat and strap on her seatbelt. The car began to move within seconds and off they went to the hospital to come face to face with the destiny of Naruto's life.
More silence filled the car, Shikamaru keeping his eyes glued to the road as Ino focused on looking out her window to keep her mind from wandering back to the image of Naruto's bruised face. More unanswered questions filled up Ino's mind at the thought of why was Shikamaru driving towards the house in the first place. Did he have a hidden agenda or was it a coincidence?
"It just seems as if the passion isn't there anymore" Ino remembered confessing to Shikamaru back at the hospital when he was recovering, how foolish was she to tell him that in the first place. Ino knew the passion between her and Naruto existed, right? It just took the way of life to determine if the fire was still there. Or was it completely out at this point?
"The doctor told me I was completely fine and that I could head home" Shikamaru broke the silence again, almost reading her mind as if he knew she wanted an answer, "I went home and headed over to your house-" Shikamaru cut his sentence short but continued it once Ino gave him a curious look with her eyebrows, "I just wanted to check if you were okay after our talk earlier" Ino knew exactly what he meant by talk, by talk he meant kiss. She was hoping he would let that whole scenario go and realize that it was his best friend he was going against.
"I'm fine, Shika. I just want this to all be okay-" Ino's voice cracked again, she tried to control the rhythm of her tone but her cries filled up the entire car. Her right hand covered up her face from showing Shikamaru how defeated she finally was. After all that she had been trough within the past twenty-four hours, even she couldn't figure out how strong she knew she had to be until that was the only choice left.
Shikamaru's heart also sunk after seeing Ino break down in front of him again, how a perfectly good woman like Ino could be so broken after receiving pain after pain from her life falling apart around her. He wished he could stop it, even just for the car ride to the hospital as his own emotions began to stir the more Ino cried herself into her lap. He extended his arm and retrieved her hand from her face and held on to it. Ino's cries lowered when she felt his gentle warm hand grab hold of her own, he rubbed his thumb around the back of her palms to soothe her down from crying. Surprisingly it worked and his finger movement kept her in place for the rest of the car ride.
As the car slowly drifted into a parking spot in Konoha's Hospital parking lot, both of them got out of the car and proceeded to head into the lobby where a nurse asked them a ton of questions until she finally knew what patient they were talking about, "Um, you'll have to wait for the doctor to come out and speak to both of you on this case. He was in a very complicated accident that has done a lot of damage from what I know, it's going to take about an hour or so to figure out the results " she read all the information off the clipboard.
Ino was unsatisfied with the nurse's answer and impatiently walked back and forth in the waiting lobby while Shikamaru took a sip of his hot chocolate he had bought at the lunch room. He watched her walk from wall to wall, looking all over the place for some type of answer or sight of Naruto and it almost made him pity her. Of course Naruto was his friend, but obviously from what Ino had let be known, Naruto never really saw how much this woman cared for him.
"Ino, come take a seat. Rest a little." Shikamaru suggested, watching Ino's walks begin to slow down over a couple of minutes. It had been forty-five minutes waiting in the lobby for an answer that was driving her insane. Ino looked over at how relaxed Shikamaru looked sitting on the couch near the vending machine of the white lobby room and walked over to take a seat next to him, "Do you want some hot chocolate?" Shikamaru suggested, Ino waving off the offer politely.
Ino's eyes continued to fall like heavy anchors but somehow she would snap out of it seconds later. Eventually all her thoughts and questions managed to drift her mind off into a deep sleep, something she had not had for who knows how long at this point. Shikamaru couldn't help but chuckle at seeing Ino's body remained lifeless as she dozed off into sleep, he than took it upon himself to move her head on his chest and place his face against her head. Feeling her heartbeat slowly get back into normal beating.
"Naruto Uzumaki was a great man. He was an amazing father, husband and most importantly, he was a friend. As the saying goes, life can really be extremely short and we all have to use up every second of it to live with no regrets and manage to forgive those who are wrong." Ino watched the priest preach to everyone in attendance wearing all black from head to toe.
Most of the crowd sitting in their seats were all in tears and prayers for the guest of honor who was placed inside the opened casket in front of them. Ino couldn't believe what the final outcome was, Naruto has been taken away from her and was now laying here lifeless. All the unanswered questions, the talks they didn't have, the passion that could've been there, it was all gone. Naruto died on that very day of the car accident and there was no way of getting him back.
Ino yelled and cried, running down the isle of the church. Everyone's attention broke away from the priest and focused on the blond running in a black dress with tears spraying from her eyes the more she reached for the casket in front of everyone. The more Ino reached, the more her grasp on the casket seemed impossible. She could see her long-lost husband laying in the casket with a black tuxedo on but he just continued fading away from her sight as she reached him. A white light began glowing from the ceiling of the church everyone was in. It was time.
Ino's eyes opened slowly to feel them wet and moist, noticing she was clutching onto the chushion of the couch in fear. Her nightmare seemed so real and she hoped for it to be just that, a nightmare. She wouldn't be able to handle it if that's what the reality of the outcome was going to be as soon as the doctor come out and inform her. The blond adjusted her head upright to notice she was laying her face against Shikamaru's chest while he was out cold as well. His hand gripped her gently on her waist and she couldn't help but feel comfort in his actions for once. It was nice for someone to care for her condition instead of her having to be her own supporter constantly.
Trying to remove the horrifying nightmare from her mind, Ino took Shikamaru's hand off her as well and stood up to look at the clock above the lobby's door. Time had zoomed by and was now two hours since their arrival. "The doctor has to know something by this point" Ino thought to herself, looking around and coming into eye contact with the nurse who she had talked to her earlier.
"Ma'am, the doctor will see you now. He's right behind those doors, room two-oh-nine" The petite nurse explained but Ino was already on her way to where she had pointed at. She knew eventually Shikamaru would find her so she didn't even bother waking him up. After all, he looked so at peace and was also in this very same hospital not to long ago at the hands of Sakura.
Ino hurried trough the doors to bump into a doctor that was waiting outside of the room the nurse had told her about. He held a clipboard with papers on it in front of him before he spoke up, "You must be his wife. Well, the good thing is he will recover and is alive." The doctor explained, looking back down at his clipboard before Ino could squeal out loud in joy. She knew her nightmare wasn't going to become reality, she had faith they could start over and love each other a bit more.
"He has a broken leg but it will heal over a bit of time. The car managed to bent it out-of-place, dislocating the bone and causing some bruising and swelling around his head" The doctor continued, seeing Ino close her eyes and just imagine the pain he must have felt as the car hit him. She vowed to give Sakura the biggest beat down of her life if she ever crossed her life again. All the exciting news of Naruto keeping his life almost made Ino slip her mind of the thought on Sakura's pregnancy announcement she had told them about. Ino couldn't help but feel betrayed by that but knew that in time, she would get to hear Naruto's side of the story.
"He is breathing fine now, he's just in a deep sleep at the moment." Another delay, Ino's patient was growing thin and unbearable to when she would be able to talk to her husband again, "When he wakes up, I will further question him on how he feels and we'll go from there. I can't know how he truly is until he awakes. Feel free to go in and keep an eye out on him."
The doctor gave a warm smile and walked away from Ino into his office space. Ino stood in front of the door that separated her and Naruto and began to shake, the same way she shook when she was about to go into Tsunade's office and receive the news on Naruto's acts with Sakura caught on tape. Opening the door, Ino stepped inside and moved the curtain hanging from the ceiling away from her path and came face to face with Naruto's body on the hospital bed.
Naruto was laying down comfortably in the white sheeted bed with a cast around his left leg. He had a bandage wrapped around his head to the front of his forehead along with little stitches on his bottom lip. Even with all the doubt Ino had on him before, he still looked more handsome than ever since the first time she met him at his office. She took a step closer and observed his injured face closer, her body shook even more at the pain he endured.
"I'm here, Naruto" Ino whispered, standing over his body and placing her hand over his that connected to the monitor that kept beeping every second. She felt his cold hand pressed against hers and lowered her face to give him a kiss on the forehead. Ino was even more ecstatic that her son was going to be able to grow up in front of his father's eyes.
"Wakeup, Naruto. I miss you already." Ino cried into his hand, wiping away the tears as they flowed with a towel laying next to his bed on a glass counter. Her soul almost jumped out of her skin when she felt someone's hand being placed on her shoulder, she turned to see Shikamaru looking at her so deeply concerned. Ino quickly let go of Naruto's hand and turned to face Shikamaru, giving him a brief rundown on what the doctor had told her.
"He'll be fine, Ino" Shikamaru placed his hand on her arm, noticing she was trying so hard to grasp on to his words. He took a step closer to her and wrapped his arms around her warm body, running his fingers up and down her back for comfort. Ino lowered her guard down and placed her face against his chest, finally coming to terms that he just wanted to help her out trough this tough situation.
Ino inhaled the fresh scent Shikamaru's body gave off, making her want to drift into another sleep right there and then. "Thank you, Shika" Ino whispered to him, feeling him grip her a bit tighter than before but she didn't mind. She needed a hug, she needed comfort and assurance. All the things Naruto began to lack in their marriage. It was so funny to Ino how she had never noticed the little things he didn't do while with him, it just took the perfect timing to see it all.
Breaking away from Ino, Shikamaru looked at the blond in her blue orbs without hesitation, "You are a strong woman, Ino" she felt it again. Ino felt the same feeling she had felt the first time he had touched her in his hospital room. Her body felt so weak and nervous as if he had some type of control over it by just his words. She just wasn't used to being told things like that anymore at this stage in her life by anyone including her husband.
As Ino saw where this was heading, she removed his grip on her and heard a slight noise coming from the bed. "Mmmm" Naruto moaned slowly, shifting his arms and body very slowly on the bed. Ino stood in place like a statue, waiting for him to slowly open his eyes from his deep sleep he was in. Naruto continued groaning as an annoyed toddler would and that's when it happened. His eye lids shook, adjusting to the bright light of the room as he finally opened up his eyes.
"Naruto, your awake!" Ino announced, smiling with tears of joy as he gave her a look right back. He was looking at her dazed and confused, his eyes wandering around the white walls of the room not saying a word. "You still look so adorable waking up" Ino chuckled, giving Naruto a peck on his cheek. He began to blush at her. "I'll call the doctor in and let him know your up."
Shikamaru looked at Naruto and noticed something was different about the man he called his friend. He had known Naruto long enough to know when something was off and now the tables had quickly turned. As Ino hurried to get the doctor, Naruto stopped her in her tracks, unaware that her life would probably never ever be the same again. All the time and emotions she had invested with Naruto was now given to a complete stranger when he asked her "Where am I? And who are you?"
THAT"S A WRAP for the first chapter! Hope you all enjoyed it so far because just like Obsessed, you have absolutely no idea what's about to come later on. What happens now? Where is Sakura in all of this? Can Ino somehow continue fighting for her marriage or will she just give it up all in the end? Find out as the story continues! Please leave a review/comment on what you thought so far!