Undeviating Love

Chapter 1: Shadow of a Memory

By: an1m3.4sp

Summary

He disappeared out of the face of their world, no clues, no messages, no body was found. Just gone… Unknown to Ino, Shikamaru's has already begun his own journey. With a lost memory and hired as a rogue assassin since his body still remembered its skill. Betrayal and anger clouded her mind as she struggled to survive and protect her boys. Sequel to 'Out of Control.'

I relaxed on his old grassy hill, staring at the cloudy sky. On a Sunday afternoon when everyone else in the village stayed relaxed at home, and readied themselves for a busy Monday. I usually came to this hill daydreaming of my childhood and him. Him… The cause of all my stress, Shikamaru Nara.

Take care of the boys till I come back, he had said before the signal from his transmitter broke off. I had just given birth to my two sons when he disappeared; he didn't even get to see his boys. Riku and Sora named after the land and sky; two things that Shikamaru and I represented. He always smelled of fresh grass because he lazed on this hill every available opportunity, and forest since his family raise deers. He loved watching the sky, and comparing me to it… One day I was happy and sunny, and another I was sad like rain and angry as storms.

It's been a year and half… One year, and six months… And nothing, not one sign of hope.

"Mommy!" boys giggled over my figure on the grass, tiny hands found either side of my arms and tapped for my attention. I opened a lazy eye, covering my mouth as I yawned tiredly. Riku reminded me more of Shikamaru, even with his blond hair; he had his eyes, dark and calculating as if he understood a lot already. He'll be a manly handsome, I thought proudly reaching up a hand and brushing the dirt on his cheek. Sora looked more like me, even with his dark brown hair; he had my bright blue eyes, airy and full of life. He'll be devastatingly handsome, almost beautiful; I smiled pulling a small branch from his brown locks.

"Ino won't save you now!" Chouji appeared, his arms raised as if he were a monster making animal growls. The boys screamed in laughter, latching onto me for protection. They really loved playing with Chouji, he would come over every other day to see the boys and give his support. Always bringing food to the house, and babysitting whenever I was needed extra hours in the hospital. They just loved him, and he seemed to enjoy playing with the boys.

I laughed, jumping up to my feet and running in circles as Chouji kept up his monster act, running closely behind. I recently asked him if his girlfriend minded him being with her and the boys all the time, he had shrugged indifferently and explained that he'd broken it off soon after Shikamaru's disappearance. Chouji had been the first one to gone on the rescue mission, he also organized all the search parties and even went spying various times to try and track him down but everything came back empty. He has been a great help to me and wonderful with my children, he's always had a tender personality.

"Gotcha!" he triumph catching me around the waist, and lunging for the boys who shook with laughter as he captured them and placed them on each shoulder. I laughed breathless, sitting back down on the grass and looking up at Chouji. He had really grown into a good looking man, with a body like Asuma had and a squared strong jaw line. He still drew those war symbols on his skin when he went on missions, but on days like these there was no need.

The boys held onto his spiky hair, making sure they didn't fall off since it would be a long way down. I turned to the village and spotted a few women watching us, I could almost hear them whispering even at this distance. Look at her, it's only been a year and she's already with someone else, the diseased husband's best friend no less… I turned away and looked up at Chouji; I'm not sure why I never dated him in the past. I guess because we just went our separate ways after Asuma died, and I was always in love with Shikamaru.

Rumors sprouted soon after Chouji began visiting regularly to babysit or just spend the day like today with us. I have always been used to the sort of gossip, but I wondered if it had been the gossip to break his last relationship. I had talked to him about it, but he denied it and said he had lost interest a while ago. I couldn't reject his help either since I really needed help with the two demons, they learned things too quickly and took advantage of every situation they could find that would benefit them; Like raided the candy drawer at home when I wasn't looking, or sneaked outside alone to explore.

"Looks like it's about to rain," I commented shivering, a sudden cold cooled the air blowing a chilly breeze. I was wearing a jounin uniform, but had neglected to bring a sweater since I had been so busy looking for the boy's sweaters.

"You're right, we better start heading back before it catches us," Chouji agreed, looking up at the suddenly angering sky. He put the boys down and took off his massive cloak made for rainy missions, and threw it over to me. I stared at him confused catching the hooded cloak. "You look cold, and I'm not," he said easily, looking away. I stared a little surprised, he noticed.

"Thanks," I smiled, pulling it on. Just as I did it began raining, it was like a switch was flicked and fat drops of water wet Chouji's body. He pushed the happy boys into the cloak with me since it reached the ground.

"Just like I thought, it was going to catch us," he laughed, scratching the back of his head. "Walk slowly so you don't trip, let's go," he smiled, stuffing his hands in his pockets. The first few steps the boys at my feet were in my way, making me almost trip but Chouji's steady hand on my elbow leveled me.

"You're all wet," I worried, and I was warm because I took his cloak.

"I like the rain," he shrugged, walking besides me. It looked like he was escorting me with his hold on my elbow. I couldn't help glancing up at him, his spiky hair flattened and his clothes became sticky showing off his muscles. He glanced down at me feeling me staring, and I smiled shaking my head; it's amazing how everyone changes.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked, we were almost to the house Shikamaru had left me. I could walk easily now since the boys managed to stay on either side of my legs.

"I am wondering if I should keep the hope that Shikamaru is still alive or accept that he probably isn't," I mumbled sighing, low enough so that my boys wouldn't hear me. I hadn't explained anything to them, because they're just too young to understand. "What would he be doing for a year and a half without any message?"

"I don't know…" Chouji frowned staring straight, "I still look whenever I'm sent out on missions, and I think I'll always look just in case… but a part of me has accepted that he's gone." He shook his head, glancing down at the boys who peaked out of the cloak giggling at their own private game. "We can't wait forever, it's not healthy."

"I know." I ended that conversation there, since we both still hadn't completely accepted it. We made it to my house soon after and Chouji changed into spare clothes he kept there. He was over so often that he practically lived there now, with his own guest room. I made dinner as Chouji brought out Shikamaru's shougi board to entertain the kids. They of course weren't impressed, but they played since it was Chouji. With me they would have probably ran around the house making a mess.

"There," I grinned triumphantly, the soup slowly boiled. Another 5 minutes and it would be ready, I thought opening the glass door leading to the back yard patio. The rain sounded soothing as it hit the wood; I understood a little why Chouji liked the rain. It cleaned and refreshed the earth.

I closed my eyes and heard it. Light steps coming fast from behind me, I snapped out of my daze and turned around with a kunai already in my hand making the masked ninja behind me step back in surprise. I grunted annoyed that my peaceful day would be interrupted by an attack.

"Who are you?" I growled, opening my chakra points to see if any other unknown chakras surrounded the house. The enemy's chakra alone caught all my attention, too familiar. He wore black clothes, with a no symbols meaning he was a rogue. A mask covered half his face, and his hair was short and uncontrollable…

He didn't speak, just came forward again trying to attack me. I threw my body back, and kicked up catching him on the chin throwing him back so that he slammed into the railing of the patio. That should make enough noise for Chouji to hear, I thought rushing towards the man's body to finish the job. There was movement from inside and a window shattered. I ignored it trusting Chouji's abilities, when another enemy appeared before me with a long sword stopping my approach. I snarled, pushing her back. The second attacker was a woman, and by her entrance and already breathless state she had been fighting with Chouji inside.

"Why did you target us!" I demanded, worried for my kids. Chouji would have died first than allowed something to happen to them.

"We are professionals," she hissed back, grunting with effort as I pushed my kunai down harder on her sword, a sword materializing in my own hand. I plunged it into her stomach, making her lose all strength in her arms and dropping her weapon as she gripped my sharp sword. I removed her mask with a swipe of my kunai and looked over her features. Black hair, black eyes, light skin; she definitely came from the water country… But she wasn't familiar to me.

"Who sent you?" I demanded again, my hand closing around her neck just, as a sword was place to my neck threateningly.

"Let her go…" a male voice grunted, my head screamed. His voice was too familiar, his stature, was too familiar… Who is he? He had obviously recovered from my attack, but I wasn't worried; I have way too many tricks up my sleeve still.

"Who sent you?" I repeated my question again, sending chakra up my arm and into the girl I was choking. Instantly her memories assaulted my visions, letting me know who had sent the assassins. I found the one responsible, a high royal from the water country… My eyes widened in horror, a face I did recognize popped into her vision making me gasp. The sword at my throat tightened, before it was removed completely as Chouji finally appeared and threw the male assassin away from me. I pulled the sword from the woman's stomach letting her body drop and looked at man, he pulled off the mask covering his mouth and I stared at the face of my dead husband…

Shikamaru's POV

"What's this?" I asked looking over the vanilla folder just handed to me by the woman who found me work, her name is Kin Tsuchi. She smirked raising a delicate eyebrow, crossing her arms proudly.

"Open it," she urged, watching me do so. I stared at the picture on the file, a woman in her 20s, long blond hair, big blue eyes, fair skin; I couldn't help the instant attraction I felt for the beautiful creature. "She's our next target… Ino Yamanaka, Konoha's prettiest flower, the secret weapon, blah, blah, blah…" she waved her hand back and forth irritated. "Their offering 1 million for her head… This little female is worth that much; I heard she stopped a whole invasion once by capturing the strongest ninjas with her mind. A scary girl."

"Ino…" her name felt right too, she's beautiful… "I'm not doing it," I say finally, dropping the report aside on my desk still staring at the picture.

"What! Why? It's 1 million!" Kin demanded, snatching the report from my view; to my annoyance, I wasn't finished looking at the woman. "If we don't do it, someone else will!"

"I don't assassinate women, you know that." I glared wanting the folder back, Ino Yamanaka… I wanted to see her face in person, pictures are always different.

"I'll do it, but I need your help to get into Konoha. It's pretty dangerous, they have a monster as a Hokage and Kakashi the son of the White Fang…" she stomped her foot irritated, "on here it says that she lives alone, with two infants. According to informers, her husband used to be the lead strategist who died in battle soon after she gave birth. Sad story, I'm sure she's depressed. We should cure her misery," she tried to persuade me but a widow with two kids… Yeah not happening.

"Drop it, it's not worth it."

"Come on let's just go and check it out," she begged, waving the picture of the beautiful woman in my face. I wanted to snatch it from her, and just stare at it. The picture said something I've forgotten, but I couldn't exactly understand. According to Kin, I showed up one day half naked and close to death; with no information on my person about who I was. When I woke, there was a black void in my memory and I couldn't remember anything from my past. The skills and techniques I must have learned in my past life came back quickly, but not my memories.

Kin convinced me that my skills only pointed in one direction, I must have been a rogue assassin because of my area of expertise. I was brutal and precise, intelligent in the world of war and strong with my weapons. There was no other place for me, and Kin made sure I understood that. She's the one that nursed me to health, since I had been on the blink of death when she rescued me. She called me shadow, because of my abilities. I didn't like the name she chose since it felt wrong, but I didn't care enough to argue it. It's been a year and six months, this was my life and I stopped hoping someone would show up looking for me. I must have always been the scum of the world.

"We'll just take a peek, just follow her and check things out," she insisted, still waving the picture. I snatched it from her hand, and stared at the picture. Ino Yamanaka, it'll be nice to see her in person, I reasoned staring at her sky blue eyes.

"Fine… But just to observe," I frowned, turning away and placing the file back over my desk. We currently stayed in a spa near the Hidden Sand village, since we just had a job there to assassinate a high official. The job had gone as planned, and they escaped without being noticed. I wore a black net under my long sleeve shirt, and black ninja pants. My hair was cut short so it spiked up, and my nose and mouth was always covered so I had no name. I was only a weapon after all… War is my profession.

We left to Konoha the next morning; the trip took three days since I refused to run. What for, I'll get there when I get there, I decided even though I felt uneasy to see the woman on the picture in person. Something about her unsettled me, and I wanted to take a closer look.

Sneaking into the village was amazingly easy, there was a shortage of ninjas and so not enough guards posted at the gates to keep watch. Kin and I found the woman on Sunday morning; she walked with a strong looking man and her two kids. My heart beat quickly as I watched her lay on the grass relaxing. It felt almost like déjà-vu and he had the sudden urge to join her and watch the clouds just drifting by above. The male with her played with the two boys, they seemed pretty close; but according to reports he couldn't be the boys' father. The father had disappeared right after their birth, leaving them fatherless; this was common in ninja families.

"That must be her new boyfriend," Kin whispered, she had gone around the village to get more information and heard plenty of rumors about the couple before them. The bigger man played with the children happily as she laid seeming at peace in her little world. "The kids won't get in the way, their much too young to remember their mother… We shouldn't have a problem," Kin smiled looking over to me, I frowned shaking my head.

"No, I don't kill women especially when they have children to feed," I snapped, turning back to the blond woman who was now playing with the boys. Why was she worth so much? What power she had or who did she piss of to have such a huge price on her head; of course other than stop a complete invasion. I didn't have any allegiance to any country so I did not have to keep my information secret. I would just have to talk to her, in other occasions I wouldn't care but she didn't deserve this, neither did the boys. I just wanted to get close to her… "We aren't going to kill her, get out of the village first," I ordered, watching as the other man gets her around the middle playfully trying to get to the boys.

Kin frowned unhappy but left without another word, that was uncharacteristic for her usually she would have kept bitching or worst but seemed like today she was in a good enough mood. Honestly I wasn't even sure why I still hung out with her, she only slowed me down and got in my way since her abilities as a ninja weren't good. I've saved her life many times, and to tell the truth I didn't even care about her well being. She was the only person I knew since my memory lost and I wasn't evil enough to send her to her death alone.

Ino walked with the bigger man home since the sky turned angry all of the sudden. Huge wet drops of rain came down and splattered over my hair. She was wearing his cloak and I couldn't help feel bothered that they were an item. The coupling made me feel jealous for some weird reason, and I followed closely behind spotting the house the entered. It was a comfortable looking house, something I wish I had…

I waited outside in the patio, hoping she would come outside then I could warn her. To my luck she did, her kids were inside playing with the large man a game of shougi… something I enjoyed playing. She breathed in the freshness of the rain and I took several steps forward, my hand reaching out to touch her. I'm not sure why I had this reaction to her, but it didn't matter. She turned around expertly, with a weapon already in her hand swiping the space where my hand had been. I jumped back avoiding the kunai.

"Who are you?" she demanded infuriated, I moved forward stupidly but nothing came out of my mouth. I couldn't speak, and she kicked me in the chin sending me flying and colliding with the wooden railing of the patio. I grunted staying down, I couldn't think just being this close to her made my mind go on overdrive trying to remember something important. Everything felt unreal and lost.

She charged forward, ready to make the final move when glass shattered and Kin appeared before me. Her sword in front of her, stopping the blonde's approach. I looked into the house wondering if she had killed the man and the children, I hoped not because that would have been horrible. Even I wouldn't have forgiven her.

A sword appeared in Ino's hands and she plunged it deep into Kin's stomach; I watched in horror and moved as quickly as I could to place my own sword to the blonde's throat. "Let her go," I grunted, tightening the sword to the woman's throat but unable to hurt her. She must have a jutsu cast on me already because I've never been this hesitant in my lifestyle. I've killed hundreds without a single thought of remorse. Yet I couldn't bring myself to hurt this woman.

A hand grabbed me from behind my neck and pulled me away from her. I let go of my sword completely so I wouldn't slice her throat, and was thrown across the patio once again. Grunting I looked up as the she pulled her sword out of Kin's body and turned to me. I pulled off my mark, breathing heavily as I tried to plan a way out.

Kin was on the floor unmoving, on the other side of the patio. I would have to get through both the huge man and the dangerous woman. I couldn't think of a way without hurting them both.

"Sh-Shikamaru!" she covered her mouth in disbelief, and bigger man took a step back in shock as if seeing a ghost and I saw my chance. Pushing up quickly I jumped to the over side of the patio as they watched me in disbelief. I picked up Kin's body and was about to run when she screamed again. This time I realized she had called me Shikamaru it rang a bell, "why are you doing this Shikamaru!"

I looked back to her and was surprise to find tears rolling down her eyes, the bigger man seemed to have snapped out of his stutter and charged forward infuriated. "Traitor," he screamed, and I had overstayed my visit. I jumped and ran away as quickly as I possibly could. My brain was working overtime and a sudden fever made me dizzy. I felt the shadow of my memories peeking through, but the sudden adrenaline rush and sudden fever made me unable to open my past.

They didn't follow.

Please Review!!


Author Notes

Sorry this was really short; it was hard for me to get back into the mood to write after Vegas. Lol, let me just say that Vegas is the place to be at 21!! OMG! It was like a whole new world I haven't even known about opened up and endless possibilities presented themselves before me. Maybe I just had the best people to go with me, or I went to the best clubs offered, or maybe it's just that great. But wow… I recommend it; our time there went by super fast, like we were at a gas station one minute then leaving the next. Sigh…. Enough about my awesome weekend, hehe.

I noticed my mistake on the update in the Out of Control story. I had meant Friday, June 19, 2009 not the 18th. So technically I'm not late! I did put Friday. Well hope you guys like the direction of this story, sorry didn't have enough time to edit. Will do a better job next chappie =)