She had loved him most of her life; if not to say all of her life. From the first time he had called her troublesome, she had known that he had captured her heart. It's weird to say that she had started being attracted to him in that moment, but as her mother always said: "You don't choose who you love; it just happens."
Over the years she kept wishing that that love would dissipate, but to no avail. She kept trying to move on, but with only one gesture of kindness he would pull her back in. He was always there to lend his shoulder when she needed to cry, he rarely asked her the reason for her tears instead he would listen and offer a few words of comfort from time to time. He would always push her to surpass herself; for some reason he was the only one who thought that she could do better; the only one that truly believed in her. He had always been by her side and she wouldn't have had it any other way.
And for many years she thoughtlessly believed that she was the only woman in his life; the only one who could stand beside him. Imagine her surprise when she saw them together, it had never occurred to her that he might want or need someone else by his side; she foolishly thought she was the only one who could stand beside him. Watching them together had been painful, but she had kept her mouth shut believing that this was what he wanted; she only wanted him to be happy. She decided to feel content enough by spending some time with him in missions and during training; it was their precious time together.
However, despite her best efforts the gap between them continue to grew as the years passed by. His intellect and talent was eventually recognized, and team 10 was no more. He was given much higher ranked mission or even consulted on some village business; while she was stuck in the Intel Department or on solo spying missions. The gap increased even more with the presence of that woman; oh how jealous she was. She felt ashamed of the dark thoughts that clouded her mind every time she would see them together; but she could not stop herself. When the peaceful days were over and the war started, her dark thoughts intensified until she could take it no more.
It was around that time that she started to despise herself so much that she wished that the war would be her own downfall. She briefly wondered if he would cry for her; if anyone would cry for her for that matter. Over the years she had not been the nicest person, and she knew that she had hurt her fair share of people over the years; if she could she would go apologize to each and every one of them.
Most of all though, she would go apologize to him for all that she had done and said that might have hurt him over the years. Needless to say that she had tried many times before to apologize, but always failed to find the right words to make him understand. Maybe, just maybe, it was for that reason that she did what she did...
It was war; it was a battlefield; it was expected that someone would die, but it would not be him and she would make sure of it. Before she would even think about her actions of their consequences she jumped in front of him and shoved him backwards, he hadn't even seen her coming; she had always been faster than him. She was pierced through and through and she knew in that moment that no amount of medical jutsu would save her, and as she fell soundlessly to the ground she briefly wondered if she had been forgiven.
"INO!" came a loud yell behind her.
She knew that voice, she had yearn for that voice to cal her name all her life. She felt tears prick her eyes as she hung to the last of her life force. Why was she crying? Wasn't this what she wanted? What she had wished for?
"W-Why?" asked the voice, now besides her; he was holding her like she had always wanted to be held.
She cracked her eyes open to look at his face one last time, the sight of the all-too familiar charcoal eyes of the man she loved stare back at her. Those beautiful eyes were filled with tears as he clung to her body.
"W...watch the clouds... with...me, Shika." she croaked before the last of her life force left her body.
She would never know just how much he cried over her body, how he refused to let it go, or how blinded with rage he eventually became. People tell the story of a man swallowed by the shadows that killed all in his path, until finally his body could take no more and he crumbled to the ground. And as the shadows dissipated it revealed the stricken face of a young man crying, and as he fell to the ground his last words were not for the woman he had chosen; but rather for the one he had always loved.
"Always with you... Ino." He whispered with his last breath.