AN: Hey. So this is my second fan fiction and I hope that everyone likes it. I drew some pictures that sparked an idea and I guess I'll see where it goes from here. Happy reading! :)

~Kara

How A Heart Endures

I never thought my life would end this way. Tortured, beaten, and now to be killed in front of everyone as a show of what would happen if anyone else tried to defy the new village leader. This was not the way everything was supposed to work out, not how I envisioned everything to end. But I should have expected this. After all, the meaning from my life was lost, and I had nothing more to lose. I only found the situation fitting that I would be put out of my miserable struggling for good. The fighting spirit that had once engulfed me, blazing inside like a bright flame, had now flickered into embers. But even those dim, glowing coals were quickly fading, soon to be put out entirely by my eminent death.

I was led through the crowds gathered in the center of town, more and more people being ushered in as the seconds ticked by, everyone being required to attend the spectacle. How else was our leader supposed to gain power than to make a display of killing a criminal and traitor? The dust kicked up from the dirt beneath my slow-paced feet. I looked up briefly and noticed how dark and eerie the clouds seemed to look at the moment. I could feel a rainstorm building around me. Huh. Seemed like the earth was going to grieve along with my aching heart and defeated spirit.

As my captors and I neared the wooden platform in the middle of the gathering crowd, I could see the face of my reaper. A sad, hard look decorated her beautiful face and my stomach clenched in knots just looking into her entrancing scarlet eyes. Her raven hair was skewed about her shoulders in thick, tousled waves. Her nose seemed to wrinkle slightly as I approached, whether in disgust or disapproval, I did not know. As I passed her on my way up to the guillotine, I couldn't help but give her a scornful smirk, one filled with sorrow and exhaustion. I only wanted to end this already and quit prolonging what would eventually happen. I spoke.

"I never thought I would die this way." My voice was soft and sad.

She only grimaced at my remark. I continued.

"And I certainly never expected it to be at your hand, Kurenai."

The ex-team leader, swung her head to look at me, daggers and heat in her gaze. If she could, I knew she would have pushed me underneath the blade right then and there, if not for her plan of showing me off to all of the Konoha villagers.

"You brought this upon yourself, Yamanaka," she replied coldly through her teeth.

She was struggling to keep hold of her strained emotions. Who would know better than me, the person she was closest to for the past several months? Hell, I had been going through the same thing during my imprisonment. I still would be if not for the settling, sobering sense of imminent death that lingered just up the rest of the wooden steps and in the sturdy frame of the large, sharp blade.

"Let's just get to it, then, 'kay?" I suggested, all angry banter put aside. I didn't want to procrastinate any further.

Kurenai nodded and motioned for the guards on my either side to bring me all the way up to the top of the guillotine platform.

As I stood strong and fierce in front of the crowd, I could see the barb-wire fence where the old flower shop and several other buildings used to stand. This area that included the small square I was standing in now served as the new high treason imprisonment facility. All of the villagers in here with me were considered criminals among the few free citizens outside of the fence. Anyone who opposed the new government was considered a terrorist to Kurenai's sick society.

As I looked back at her now, I saw the strain of the past several years wash over her face. The signs of her weariness were not only in her tired actions or gaunt, pale face. When I looked down at the skin exposed below the long sleeves of her kimono, I could see the blackened, burning marks damaging her once perfect, beautiful flesh. Only her fingertips were visible now, and she quickly hid them when she noticed my glances.

I turned back to face the crowds again, one of the guards holding the rope that bound my wrists together giving my a swift shove toward the headrest of the guillotine. One of the brutish ninjas walked over to the rope that held the blade aloft. I placed my neck in line with the razor-sharp killing instrument, any tiny speck of hope lingering within me drifting off to oblivion. I had been left here, unwanted by the person I cared about most. My life had fallen to shambles, the village mirroring my inner turmoil, turning to ruins before my eyes.

During the last moments of life, a person is said to have flashbacks from the past play before his or her eyes, and I experienced this, though not in the way I originally thought. Instead of big moments that I had been able to remember clearly or even ones I had suppressed, the only memories that resurfaced and flooded through my head were the ones that had been my happiest. Of course, this would make sense, but the only thing that made me happy in these past events were a certain someone who had captured my heart and caused me to fall hard-yet willingly through-an endless paradise of life and love. Of course, this same person took my heart and stomped all over it, leaving me to bleed on the cold ground, only to reawaken as a sort of zombie-like creature, merely going through the motions of living.

That's how I wound up with Kurenai. After the sudden death of Lady Tsunade, I supported her aspiration to become the new Hokage. During the past couple of years, she had really made a name for herself among the villagers. Not only had she raised Asuma's child all by herself, but she decided to become a ninja once again, throwing herself into the occupation full force. She became a hero, and I became her aid, always there if she needed a favor or even a friend. I had even helped her take care of Little Asuma when she was unavailable. I didn't know why, but she and I became very close after she found me wandering the streets in the rain, dirty week-old clothes on my back and a dead, empty look in my eyes.

I still wonder what went wrong, where in the process she became so manipulative and I became so gullible. I still questioned my sanity at that low point in time, but I had also been so scorned and hurt that Kurenai had betrayed not only the village, but me as well. That was two times that I was disowned, abandoned and left to rot. My mind couldn't comprehend all of the hurt, merely turning onto autopilot to try and cope with the revisited emotions. I didn't even bat an eye when Kurenai threw my parents in prison and then had them tortured and killed for information everyone was aware that they didn't possess.

Yet, somehow, through all of that, I still managed to go on with my life. That is, up until now. I didn't know where my planning went wrong, where my luck turned sour and I no longer had cards to play in the poker game that was my life. So much bluffing, cheating, losing.

As these thoughts went through my mind in the few brief moments before the sentencing was finally organized, I didn't feel anything. The emotions were strong, but I had built up a wall against their invading force, severely lightening the blow. I guess I really wasn't a human anymore, but the sad, empty shell I became when my heart was broken so far beyond repair for the first time.

Ominous thunder rumbled in the distance and I glanced at the sky once more, a fat raindrop landing on my cheek, rolling down my face like a tear from the heavens. My short, platinum blond hair blew in my face as wind swept through the prison yard. During my arrest, my long hair was chopped into a crew cut. Since then, it had grown into a choppy, almost chin-length bob. The color was dull and greasy from neglect, but I seldom cared for the appearance I once took pride in.

Off in the distance, the sun was setting through the gathered storm clouds and I had the perfect view. Something in me clicked at that moment, the last time I would ever witness the majesty of a sunset. My throat constricted and the corners of my eyes began to burn as I watched this tiny bit of peace in a huge hell storm.

I heard the sound of papers shuffling behind me and someone coughed, a government official clearing his throat. The man then began to read out loud to the crowd my crimes and my punishment.

"This woman before you all," the man stated, "has been accused of the following..."

I didn't care to listen to the lies that surrounded me, burying me in a pit too deep to climb out of.

As I didn't even give the decent courtesy of pretending to listen to the man give his speech, a flicker of movement near the chain-link fence caught my eye. Intrigued, I watched as two figures scurried behind the preoccupied guards. Another was pacing beyond the fence, tools of the breaking-out variety in hand. So, someone was going to try and bust a friend out of the prison as my execution took place. Smart. The security around here was pretty lax anyway, seeing as less and less ninjas were being assigned the job of guarding us "criminals." In fact, most people didn't even go through ninja training anymore, considering most of the time they were deemed as threats to the new Hokage. To protect the village, Kurenai had been taking up some very shady treaties with the other lands, not even blinking when someone needed help, merely trying to keep off of everyone else's radars. Kurenai even became so paranoid as to create some sort of barrier around Konoha that left everyone without chakra to be able do any jutsus at all. I didn't know how she accomplished this, but the proof was in all the dejected shinobis that now lived in the prison.

I inspected the duo trying to break loose, watching as the helper beyond the fence began to cut through the metal with some sort of tool, possibly a file. I guessed this person was a male, but I wasn't watching too closely, merely keeping tabs of the two as the sun drifted ever closer to the horizon line.

Then something caught my eye. The female who was trying to break free was someone I knew well and had no intention of coming in contact with. I had been able to avoid her most of the time seeing as I had my own private little cell where they kept me apart from everyone else. Today was the first time I had been outside in a while. I liked the feeling of the cool crisp air entering my lungs. But watching this girl now, my heart nearly jumped into my throat. The blond hair in four assorted pigtails was a dead giveaway, not to mention the turquoise, cat-like eyes that seemed to entrance men. No longer did Temari of the Sand carry around her enormous fan, seeing as she had to give all of that up to live here in Konoha.

By now, the rain was pouring down, my hair sticking to my forehead and cheeks while my clothing clung to my scrawny, malnourished body. My heart pounded painfully against my ribs and my gaze zoomed in on the pair, scrutinizing every detail of the man outside the fence. The dark spiky ponytail, the small hoops in both ears, the constant far away expression, as if he was never fully in time with everyone else. But Lord knows he was always two steps ahead. That dark-eyed gaze was so intent on what he was doing, and I was caught completely off guard by his sudden appearance.

My breathing hitched and the world seemed to stop, yet swam before me in an odd pattern that didn't seem natural. I felt as if I would collapse but at the same time, I also felt the faint sense of flying, a side affect of a feeling I had not experienced for a very long time.

Tears built up in my eyes, the first I was to shed in recent memory.

I watched as Shikamaru Nara helped Temari through the opening he had just created.

"Yamanaka Ino," the man behind me called.

Shikamaru seemed to hesitate and looked up, raindrops flying from his face as his eyes landed on my dumbfounded face.

A startled sob echoed from my throat.

"You are hereby sentenced to decapitation by guillotine for your crimes of treason."

Shikamaru's eyebrows furrowed as he held my desperate gaze.

My tears spilled over. He shifted his position for a moment, seeming to try and get a better look by ducking into the hole he'd just created in the fence.

My knees gave out and I fell to the surface of the platform, my chin now hovering right above the headrest.

"Do you have any last words, Miss Yamanaka?"

I stared and stared at the man in front of me, the man who had broken me, yet who still had some sort of hold over me, like I would never truly be free from the feelings I once had for him. I was on my knees, shaking as Shikamaru glanced back to Temari as she climbed out of the prison yard.

I began to speak. "I—I don't..." The words were impossible to reach, but the air was so silent that Shikamaru snapped his head back to me at the sound of my voice.

And I suddenly knew what I wanted to say.

"My heart is still yours," I whispered, my voice carrying over the crowd.

A look of alarm shot across Shikamaru's face as if he sensed what would happen next. He seemed to be moving toward the platform now, toward me.

I gave a small, sorrow-filled smile. "Please take care of it."

He opened his mouth as if to speak, the sweetest words calling out to me. "Ino! Ino, stop!" I could barely make out what he was saying for the dull roaring in my ears.

"Goodbye." I mouthed the words as I heard the shick the guillotine blade make as it was released. At the same time, I could see Shikamaru running, sloshing through the dirty puddles, shouting some nonsense that didn't matter anymore because he had Temari and I was about to die.

The world swam into oblivion as the blade flew down toward my neck.

AN: Okay, so that's the end of the prologue. Please give me feedback about this because I'm really excited to start from the beginning and go through their story. It will be in both Ino and Shikamaru's POV.

~Kara