Chapter 1
Konoha was a small and quaint metropolis with a population of no more than 115,000. The apartment living was expensive with the little city itself being on the upscale side. The air was clean and vegetation was a predominant feature as there were multiple parks paid for by tax dollars. Quaint little shops littered the clean streets and intersections and small mom and pop restaurants drew in hungry customers for some good home-cooked food. Life in the city of Konoha was good…
Apart from one resident in particular who happened to be fuming angrily as she listened to another response of rejection on her answering machine. She had once again been denied a position of management at a locally run business. How was she supposed to pay off her overwhelming amount of college debt if she couldn't even get a decent paying job?!
Her college education had practically sucked the life out of her and what did she currently have to show for it, but a pile of overdue bills and the feeling of inadequacy as she continued to hunt for a job that paid reasonably…
Desperation had never suited Yamanaka Ino, but that didn't stop her from feeling her throat clench as angry tears began to build behind her closed eyelids. Her hands lifted up mindlessly to burry themselves in her long platinum blond hair as the stinging of her eyes persisted. What was she going to do? It had been four months since she had graduated college… four months of job hunting, and resumes, and rejection and it was all beginning to be just a little too much for her. Her self-confidence was being chipped away slowly to leave behind a shadow of her former self…
Going to her family wasn't an option. They lived clear across the country from her, which was how she liked it… She fancied herself a strong and independent woman, and her parents had seen her differently… They had been of the mind that she should settle down and have children with a man that could take care of her and fend for her. It wasn't as if the idea was appalling to her, just that she didn't want to have to rely on anyone…ever…
At this point in her life, though, it would have been nice to feel secure, safe and loved… It would have been nice to breathe a sigh of relief and wake up from a good night's sleep, instead of going to bed every night with a stress headache and feeling the fingers of anxiety clenching at her heart…
College had taken up nearly one third of her life. She had been attending the local university for the past eight years on and off, relying on herself only to pay for her apartment and cost of living. Part time work was all she could afford to do, and that was certainly not even enough to make a dent in the devastating amount of debt she was currently swimming in…
Ino sat down roughly at her little, round kitchen table that seated four. She placed her head in her hand as she could feel the tension in her neck crawling up to the back of her skull in the early signs of a stress headache. There really wasn't much more of an option besides working in fast food…and even that wouldn't save her in time… She had stalled too long, hoping for a management position to just fall into her lap. Who was she kidding? Especially with the way the economy was these days.
Her blue eyes lifted to rest on the pile of mail on her table that mostly consisted of bills… She glared at them hatefully and swiped her hand at them, watching with some minimal amount of satisfaction as they fell to the floor. Left in the wake of her tantrum was the latest month's magazine issue of Forbes.
With her business degree and minor in finance management, she had taken to reading the magazine to help her become more accustom to the world of business. She would read the articles on the start and success of many new companies and imagined her own future success with a smile…
Looking avidly at the front cover, she took notice of a familiar name on the bottom right: Nara… Her eyes grew curious as she flipped open to the page the specific article was on. Her curious look turned into a deep scowl as she read about the success of her former classmate.
"Of all the people…!" she scoffed.
A two page spread was dedicated to the successful Management and Business Strategist known as Nara Shikamaru. It gloated about his humble beginnings as an entrepreneur before he was "discovered" by the Sabaku Company as their top strategist. It spoke of his job and what it entitled. Essentially he was a glorified business consultant, holding the fledged company's hand as its revenues doubled over the past three years, thanks to the guidance of her prior classmate.
What amazed and irritated Ino the most is that this man, back when she knew him, was the laziest SOB she had ever met! He never did a single thing in his life without being promoted to do so. She could even remember his mother asking her to take care of him while they attended school with one another. She took the request to heart and made certain that the slothful degenerate was in all of his classes. That was about all she could do, though, as she would often get frustrated while he either fell asleep during class, hiding behind a text book, or stared languidly out the window at the passing clouds.
Despite his lazy nature he was a brilliant student. His comprehension of human nature and actions was far greater than his minimal amount of years. His grades were unsurpassable by others. He was a regular genius and he didn't even have to try. Ino had found herself irritated and impressed with him on more than one occasion. He didn't let anything bother him and felt that most goal setting was, as he called it, "troublesome".
Several of her friends were close with him. In fact, her family and his were very tight knit along with a few others in the local community. She grew up alongside the boy until they parted ways for college.
It surprised Ino that a man with such little ambition as a child could have come such a long way in life. She wondered what could have possibly changed about him to motivate him to this extent…
Ino found herself setting her jaw tightly as she flipped back to the cover of the magazine. She sighed heavily and rose from her chair to gather up the mail that she had scattered all over the kitchen floor. Sifting through it, she was startled to see a letter from her old high school. Setting the other unopened envelops back onto the table, she tore open the letter and began to read through. It was an invitation to a high school reunion.
'Has it already been 10 years?' Ino thought.
The event was scheduled for the 20th of October. Ino considered the invitation for a moment. The event was all the way back home…such a trip would be expensive, but she hadn't seen her childhood friends in years. She really didn't have the money to be traveling, but she was stressed out and needed a small distraction from her current situation. She would have to see her parents again, but that meant she didn't have to spend money on a hotel room…
Ino found herself sighing again as she tilted her head back to look blankly at the ceiling, as if the answer to her problems would be somewhere up there. Continuing to stare at the ceiling, she headed back into her bedroom. She knew the layout of her apartment better than she knew herself at this point. Her feet shuffled to the base of her bed before she flopped down onto it unceremoniously face first.
"What should I do…?" she whined out to no one.
She really needed a break, and who knew; maybe one of her friends would have connections and could set her up with a half way decent job. Thinking along these lines, Ino made up her mind. She would attend the reunion. If not to get a job, then to relieve some of the tension that had been building on her for the past four months…
