The Hardest Mission
It
was a very nice day. There were plenty of clouds. Just the type of
day that Shikamaru loved. He was at his favorite spot for cloud
watching. Shikamaru always envied the clouds, because they had
nothing to worry about, they just floated around all day Shikamaru
always wished he were that free.
Suddenly, Chouji, Shikamaru?s
best friend ran up to him. He said to Shikamaru,
"Shikamaru,
Asuma-Sensei and Ino is waiting at the gate. You're late for the
mission."
Shikamaru sighed.
"Another mission?
It's the third one this week. What a drag."
He got up and
followed Chouji to the village gate.
When they got there,
Shikamaru was ready to be nagged at. Asuma was smoking his cigarette
as usual and looked very inpatient.
"Shikamaru, Where
have you been all this time? Your extremely late."
Shikamaru
just looked at Asuma, Ino glared at Shikamaru, and Chouji was eating
his chips as usual.
"Aright, let's go guys. Our mission
is delivering this scroll to a women in the Water country."
Asuma lifted up a scroll to show the team what it was.
So they
left the village to begin their journey to the Water country and to
deliver the scroll. They made it to the Water country, but they still
needed to go to the town of Yumekashi, where the woman lived. They
had been traveling for quite a while when Asuma announced,
"Okay,
why don't we take a rest. I'm going to go refill our water at that
river. Shikamaru take the scroll."
With that he threw the
scroll to Shikamaru.
"Why do I have to hold it? Why don't you make Ino hold it?"
"Shikamaru, I believe you
were the one who was late for our mission not Ino, am I
right?"
Shikamaru mumbled under his breath while Asuma left.
Then Ino said something,
"Shikamaru, Why do you always go
to that hill and stare at the clouds? It's so stupid."
Shikamaru
just glared at Ino. Then he admired her, admired how pretty she was.
He had a crush on Ino. He would never tell her though, because she
liked this hotshot guy named, Sasuke Uchiha. He knew he probably
would never have a chance with her.
Little did Shikamaru know that
Ino, in fact, liked him more than she liked Sasuke. She wanted to go
out with him, but she had felt he didn?t like her. So, she gave up
hope on him and just decided to admire him.
Suddenly, all three
ninjas heard a noise from up above. Five mist ninjas came from all
different directions. They all surrounded Ino, Chouji and Shikamaru.
Asuma still hadn?t returned. The team was all on their own until
Asuma came back.
Shikamaru did his shadow possession jutsu on all
five.
"Okay guys, I've got them with my jutsu."
Ino
and Chouji just nodded, they both knew Shikamaru?s jutsu used up his
chakra quickly, so they moved fast. While they were attacking, Ino
noticed Shikamaru had caught four of the mist ninjas, but she thought
there were five. That's when Ino saw the fifth mist ninja come out
from behind some bushes and ambushed Shikamaru.
"SHIKAMARU!"
Ino screamed but it was too late.
The mist ninja came up behind
Shikamaru and stabbed him in the back. Shikamaru just fell, releasing
the jutsu and the rest of the ninjas fled into hiding. Ino screamed
Shikamaru's name again. Then there was Chouji's cry amongst all the
noise,
"YOU'LL DIE FOR THAT!" There was noise of
Chouji attacking the enemy, meanwhile, Ino ran over to Shikamaru. She
was crying, and she was so scared for Shikamaru.
For Shikamaru
everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. He first felt the pain
and the scream of Ino. He could tell Chouji was going after the
enemy. Shikamaru still didn?t understand what had happened, he was in
shock from the hit. Soon, he saw Ino by his side and he asked
her,
"Ino, am I dying?"
"No, You're not
dying, no you're not." Ino thought that if she said it then it
was true. She said to comfort him but also herself. She was trying to
believe that he wasn?t going to die.
Chouji was fighting and he
saw Shikamaru fall. Chouji saw the sword in his best friend. He swore
revenge on the spot and attacked the enemy.
Asuma heard so much
noise and came as fast as he could. He saw Shikamaru on the ground
and Ino sitting next to him. Then he saw Chouji kill a mist ninja.
Then four more mist ninjas came down and started to go after Chouji
and one toward Ino and Shikamaru. Asuma threw some shuriken at the
one going towards Ino and Shikamaru. He went on toward Chouji to help
him.
"Chouji go help Ino and Shikamaru." Chouji did
not reply but ran over to Shikamaru.
Chouji looked down on his
friend. Shikamaru looked up and coughed a little.
"Chouji,
take good care of Ino."
"Shikamaru, I won't have to. You're going to be fine. We're going to get you back to Konoha and get you healed." Shikamaru didn't respond. Ino got really worried.
"Shikamaru" Shika? Shikamaru?" Ino
shook him a little and he didn't open his eyes, he didn't say
anything, he didn't move. Ino started crying again.
"No,
Shikamaru, you're not going to die. Shika, say something.
SHIKA!"
"Ino, He's gone." Chouji looked at his
best friend. Then he looked at Ino. Chouji couldn?t hold it, soon he
began to cry too.
Asuma defeated the enemy and walk over to where
the three were. He saw Ino and Chouji crying and Shikamaru was just
lying there. Asuma thought that Shikamaru was dead, but he wasn't
sure. He checked Shikamaru's pulse and it was non-existent. Asuma
gasped and couldn't believe it.
Shikamaru was dead.
They
delivered the scroll to the woman, but without Shikamaru by their
side. They returned to the village, but without Shikamaru.
It was
a month later and Shikamaru still wasn't there but Ino knew he wasn't
ever coming. She couldn't get him off her mind. When she walked down
the street she thought he would be there by her side but he wasn't.
She cried herself to sleep almost every night.
One day, Ino went
to Shikamaru's favorite cloud watching spot. She sat in the grass
crying, wishing she would see him there staring up at the sky
watching the clouds he envied so much. It was now Ino, who envied the
clouds for that was where Shikamaru was. She was sometimes happy for
Shikamaru, because he was now with the clouds he always wanted to be
with. To Ino, Shikamaru was there, but he wasn't. There was no
Shikamaru.
Chouji was always missing Shikamaru. He missed his
buddy, the only one he would share his chips with. He remembered the
days where Shikamaru and him would go watch clouds and eat chips.
Shikamaru always said,
"Watching clouds and eating chips, It can't get any better than this huh, Chouji?" There were no days like that anymore. There was no more cloud watching and no more chip sharing. Life seemed so different without those words said by Shikamaru all the time,
"What a drag."
Those
words didn't exist anymore. There was no Shikamaru.
Asuma noticed
a significant change in the attitude of his students. Without
Shikamaru, there was no one complaining about every little thing. In
fact even though Asuma hated when Shikamaru complained, now that the
boy was gone he started to miss the complaints and the muttering
under the breath. There was no ponytail walking between the two other
students he led. There was no Shikamaru.
Ino and Chouji would go
to the memorial, where all the names of ninjas who died in battle.
They would sit there and stare at Shikamaru's name. Sometimes they
would meet Kakashi there. He would nod to them and go on with his own
worries. Ino and Chouji hung out more than they usually did, because
they couldn't hang out with Shikamaru. That and they were the only
ones who understood each other's pain.
Ino would dream of
Shikamaru, and so would Chouji. They would dream of what would happen
if he never went away. Asuma would wonder how strong Shikamaru would
be now. Shikamaru's family would invite Ino and Chouji over and they
would talk about him and how they miss him so and comfort each other.
When Christmas came she was going to buy a present for Shikamaru
out of habit, but then hesitated and started crying at the store. So,
Christmas was celebrated without Shikamaru. It was very cheery and
they prayed that God would take good care of Shikamaru.
Shikamaru
looked down on them and smiled. He was glad they were happy and were
getting by without him. He wished he had said one thing to Ino before
he died. He wished he had told her that he loved her. He missed his
friends so much, but knew they would be happy even though he might
not have been there with them. He protected them. He made sure they
were safe from all harm. He always watched over them.
On Christmas
day, they were opening their presents.
Asuma found a gift hidden
in his tree. He opened the gift and found a picture of him and
Shikamaru in a gold frame. He wondered where it came from. He put it
on his shelf next to the picture of their whole team. As he did this,
a tear fell down his cheek.
Chouji woke up first and was ripping
open presents. He was searching for more and found a small wrapped
present. He found it was a picture of when Chouji and Shikamaru were
young. It was a picture of them eating chips and cloud gazing. He
just held it and looked at it sadly.
Ino's mother found a present hidden in the tree. It had Ino's name on it.
"Ino,
here, I found it hidden in the tree." Her mom handed Ino the
gift and Ino opened it.
In a box, Ino found a locket. It had a
picture of Shikamaru on one side and on the other carved into the
gold were the words,
"I will love you forever"
Ino
knew it was from Shikamaru and held it to her heart and cried tears
of joy.
Ino knew Shikamaru would be with her forever.
