Title: Hurting

Author: Moonlight Music Mistress

Pairing: onesided, slight twosided ShikaIno

Summary: She wanted him so badly. After a love confession as they walk down the street, she realizes that will never happen.

Lights!! Camera!! ANGST!! It's yet another angst from moi, so please read!! And also, I am looking for some reviews for the following fics, if you could: Of Death, Iris, Loud Obnoxious Blondes, Falling Even More in Love With You, and Moments in Leaf. Ty!!

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Ino POV

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I love him.

I cherish him.

I desire him.

I want him.

I crave him.

I want to be his.

But I can't.

And I never will be able to.

I can't believe my misfortune.

After all of the love I have felt for him.

I hear the saddening words he speaks.

"I'm sorry, I don't return those feelings."

Whoever says sticks and stones

Break your bones

Doesn't know the pain

Of words.

Especially such ones filled with lachrymose.

I loved him.

He loved another.

It hurts.

It really does.

But there is nothing I can do.

To mend my broken heart.

The sadness started when I was walking back to my house from Ichiraku Ramen, deciding to eat dinner there instead of at my home. No, I wasn't having any familial problems, I simply wanted to get out in the night breeze for dinner. As I was walking home, I noticed a figure in the distant moon, walking in my path in my direction. The figure's hair was spiked mildly, his hands appearing to be inside pants pockets. I wondered curiously if this was who I had cerebrated it to be.

Alas, it was. Nara Shikamaru. My childhood friend, companion, teammate...and the person whom I loved monstrously. My footsteps' speed began to increase until I was near running to the boy, who looked to be in complete shock at my presence.

My racing to him never ceased until I was beside Shikamaru, gazing into his root beer brown irises as he looked quizzically into my own sky blue orbs.

"Oi, Shikamaru," I greeted cheerfully, my cheerfulness increasing rapidly each time I was near him.

"Oi," he replied. My heart raced and the butterflies in my stomach flew incredibly fast each time the Nara so much as spoke my name.

"Why are you out here?" I wonderingly interrogated.

"Taking a late night stroll," was his only reply. If the Nara said so much as this, it was perfectly fine with me, because at least he was talking to me and acknowledging that I was there next to him.

"Oh. I'm walking home from Ichiraku. I just had dinner there," I responded.

"Hm."

The burning love inside of me was rising; myself trying to keep this to myself. As challenging as it was to hold on to my feelings and keep them to myself, I felt Shikamaru should definitely know.

"Ino."

My heart giddily skipped a beat as he verbalized my name. I didn't even say anything to him beforehand, yet he still said my name. This was enough to cheer me up greatly.

"What, Shikamaru?" My heart was pounding about now. It was beating at such a hard pace that it hurt.

"You look agitated. Are you alright?"

I could have jumped to the Heavens and back down again at Shikamaru's concern for me. Knowing he cared enough about me to ask if I was okay made my day. Although, he had a point about my being agitated. Little did he know that he himself was the reason I was agitated.

"Y-yes..."

"Are you sure?"

"Y-yes."

"Positive?"

"Yes...I mean, well..." I stuttered. "No. I'm not okay."

Shikamaru glanced at me for a while, a sprinkle of concern in his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"You."

Shikamaru looked a bit upset at this. "Me?"

"Yes, you."

"What did I do, Ino?"

"You didn't do anything, yet at the same time...you did everything, Shikamaru. I have fallen so...madly in love with you that I can barely contain it anymore. If I kept this to myself any longer, I don't know how I'd live; without you knowing and all. Please...Shikamaru...don't let this ruin our friendship. Please..."

At that moment I felt a couple of small tears well up in my eyes, whimpering a bit, when I heard Shikamaru quietly huff something.

"What, Shikamaru? Please repeat that."

The next seven words that my crush had spoken made me want to walk up to Heaven and stay there forever. "I'm sorry, I don't return those feelings."

"W-what?"

"You heard me, and you know you did. I'm sorry, I don't return those feelings. To me, you are nothing more than my teammate, which I would not like to call you. I'd rather have another girl on my team, the one that I love."

"WHAT?" My eyes' moistness sped up as the tears flew out and my noisily exasperated cry was heard for miles.

"I don't love you; I love another."

"Well, go find that someone else," I hollered, tears drowning and overflowing my face, "and be happy with her!! I love you so much, and no one else will ever love you as much as I do!!" I then ran off to my home to place my tears in my pillowcase.

He didn't love me.

He never will.

He'll never see me as more than a teammate.

Whoever you are,

That girl that is lucky enough

To be liked by such a wonderful man,

Take care of him.

Make sure he is happy.

Enjoy your life with him.

Because although he was rude,

I can't help but love everything about him;

My lazy, troublesome teammate.

Maybe he doesn't love.

Maybe he doesn't like.

Maybe he doesn't even care.

But I do.

Will he ever see how much?

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Shikamaru POV

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Why was I so rude to my teammate

When she'd always been there for me,

Cared for me,

And I have just figured out,

Loved me?

Her eyes welled up and produced many tears

As her heart broke into two pieces

And her love disappeared.

Why did what I say

Come out the way it did,

And made me seem like

I hated her?

That I saw her as nothing more than a teammate?

That is not true.

I don't know why I didn't tell her how I really feel.

If I did, maybe she wouldn't be

Crying her eyes out on her bed right now.

Because if I told her the truth,

She'd be incredibly happy.

I do love Yamanaka Ino.

And because I didn't tell her,

Both of us lay in misery.

Actions speak louder than words?

Not in this case.

Now because of what I have told Ino,

My heart is breaking.

And hers already is.

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WOW. I guess weekends really are the perfect time to jot down an angsty idea for a fic, ne? Well, time to go to sleep!! I am SO TIRED. This idea came to me like...um, I don't know and I don't really care. CYA!! JA, MMM-CHAN!!!