"Do you ever think life wasn't meant to be lived?"

Shikamaru looked at Ino. He didn't know why she was so delusional. What had gotten in to her? Her body was heaving, chest moving up and down. That wicked grin on her face, telling him all the secrets of her injuries that she had refused to tell.

He didn't humour her idea. Life was meant to be lived. Why else would they have been put on earth? If not to live? Because if you weren't living you were dead. Dead was the opposite of living and there was so nonchalantly asking if life was meant to be lived.

His life was mean to be lived inside of their town, with her and Choji. Asuma too, but he had been taken away from them too soon. A fact that still made his fists curl and pebbles form on his forehead. Especially in this situation.

She wasn't as well off as she had claimed. Adrenaline had gotten them through the battle. Now she was down on the ground. She was holding her open wounds closed shut, applying pressure. As was he. Both hands.

His cigarette was burning away in the grass over his shoulder. Smoke emitting. No fire.

He didn't miss it at the moment. If she died there on that ground it would be his last.

A death to make him start.

A death to make him quit.

She said it wasn't that bad. She said her injuries weren't fatal. Still there was that grin. He knew her. She knew him. So she should know that he knew. Then she tells him life wasn't supposed to be lived.

Pressure was only making her bleed out more slowly. Make the trickles down her body slow. They weren't rivers. Dribbles. It was only postponing it. Choji had run. There was another group nearby. He wouldn't get there in time. The three of them knew. They had only given him a chance not to be there. He hadn't expected him to take it. She had.

She knew he even believed there was hope. He didn't.

Life was supposed to be lived.

She wasn't life anymore. She was dirty and covered in blood. Not all from her. He didn't know from where. What if Asuma was still there?

It wouldn't change. Some things were bound to happen. They knew. If someone were to go. They knew it would be her. She was the most vulnerable. A comfort no one knew what had happened to her body. She knew. She could feel it. She didn't tell. The story wasn't to be told.

He was hardly injured. He would have bruises. Some cuts. Some bleeding. Some healing.

Like any other battle. No one come out unscathed. Safe and sound. Without harm.

She was their glue. Their reason. Their why. For her.

She was getting cold. She knew. He knew. They didn't.

What could have been. What wouldn't be. She didn't know. He didn't know. They knew.

"No, life was meant to be experienced."

A passing.