Author's Note: This is my first Naruto piece and received its inspiration from the second chapter of Spiral by Mistica83. (If you like Neji/Tenten, go check it out!)
Warning: Potential spoilers (but I doubt it) related to... Sasuke leaving Konoha.
Summary: To the people of Konoha, Shikamaru's the genius and Ino is nothing more than another dumb blonde with mediocre talent. But at least Ino knows the truth.
In Our Wisdom
Despite his lazy nature, most people in Konoha acknowledge Shikamaru as the only true genius to emerge from the academy the year the infamous "rookie nine" graduated.
True, his written test scores came out low since he refused to pick up the pen to write any answers. But that was only because it didn't see the point. The moment he glanced at the numerous questions on the page, he instantly solved them all in his head. It was "troublesome" for him to have to write it all out. He was lazy that way they realized. But lazy or not, Shikamaru was a true genius for his age. Asuma had once bragged that Shikamaru's IQ was above the 200 level. Kurenai didn't believe him at first. But when Shikamaru became the first, and only ninja, to make chunin during the exams that year, she reconsidered.
After all, due to his brilliant mind Shikamaru stood out as an excellent ninja. He had the ability to look at a battlefield and come up with over two hundred strategies in an instant. Mentally grasping each and every detail of the situation at a mere glance. From there he could simultaneously create and separate all of the possible counterstrategies into categories: no risk, slight risk, some risk, risky, dangerous, and fatal.
Even off the battlefield and away from the training grounds, his mind continued to move at a rapid pace. Analyzing and playing his moves before he took action. When playing shogi with Asuma, something that never held a challenge for Shikamaru anymore, he could be mercilessly beating his sensei while thinking of ways of getting out of next week's practice and reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of the previous mission.
But in all of his infinite wisdom, Shikamaru remain oblivious to the obvious.
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Despite the fact her signature technique allowed her to penetrate the mind of her enemy, most people in Konoha rated Ino as merely mediocre.
Granted, when compared to her fellow kunoichi classmates, Sakura and Hinata, people grudgingly admitted that Ino stood out as one of the better candidates. So some might say she was pretty good… for a girl. They acknowledged that she did have drive (most of the time), showed great determination (especially concerning capturing the elusive Sasuke) and had, at the very least, an average level of intelligence. After all, during the Chunin exams she did managed to trick Sakura in order to use her family's famous Mind Possession Jutsu to enter Sakura's body.
And on missions, her family's secret technique was a great asset in gathering information. She didn't need to rely on mental or physical torture to obtain what she needed like most of the interrogation squad and she always knew that the information she did receive was accurate.
But even so, using her jutsu left her real body in a position of vulnerability. Without her teammates around to watch over her hapless body, Ino could be picked off by the enemy easily. Not to mention, if someone damaged the body she was inhabiting, parallel injuries would appear on her real body. Thus, most people in Konoha felt her abilities only reached average level. How good could a jutsu be if you needed people to protect you while performing it?
And yet, despite her only "mediocre" abilities and intelligence, Ino knew what Shikamaru had yet to learn.
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"Where you headed, Ino?" a low, somewhat rough voice asked startling the blonde-haired girl.
"Shikamaru, I didn't see you there," Ino replied slightly breathless from the shock of hearing her teammate's voice emanating from the shadows of the wall beside her. Her shock led to anger upon realizing that as a ninja she was suppose to sense these things. Instead, of criticizing herself for such a childish mistake she unleashed anger on her unsuspecting teammate. "What do you think you're doing, Shikamaru! Honestly, it's rude to not announce your presence and then to go about it by questioning me."
He stepped forward so she could see him better. The faint moonlight rendered half his face in shadow, reminding her of the Noh masks she feared as a young child.
"You're going to wait at the gate again."
His voice was flat, neither questioning nor condemning, leaving Ino unsure of how to respond. So she simply nodded once to the face only half visible to her.
"You're going to wait for him again." Without raising his voice or changing his inflection, the word "him" still seemed to somehow come out… deeper as if Shikamaru had tried to swallow the bitterness the thought of "him" created but hadn't quite succeeded.
Ino's chin tilted upwards in defiance. "And what if I am?"
"He's not coming back," he stated nonchalantly.
"You don't know that!" she snapped back automatically.
He looked at her with intense black eyes and she wondered for a moment if this is what her Mind Possession Jutsu felt like to other people because at that moment, she swore every thought she had ever felt exposed itself before him. It was like he was turning through the pages of her mind, memorizing everything he saw in an instant before moving on to the next page. When he scoffed and looked away, she felt like he had the closed the book and tossed it aside as if it was no longer worth reading. As if her all her thoughts, dreams, and feelings meant nothing to him. Did that mean he scorned the one her heart had chosen to love as well? Did he know whom she loved?
"Don't be foolish, Ino, of course, I know."
Ino gasped, suddenly very afraid. He knew? He knew that she loved… Then she realized that he was referring to their conversation. He was talking about her waiting at the gates in vain for Sasuke to return. She had imagined the rest. He never entered her mind at all. He couldn't see her thoughts. 'Baka,' she thought unsure if she was referring to herself or the boy before her. Probably both.
"I'm still going," she said, her earlier defiant attitude subdued by his apparent indifference.
"Whatever," he replied before stuffing his hands in his pockets. She watched as he walked away back through the alley that she came from.
'Baka,' she thought again. He was a baka for being a genius who couldn't even see that she had never loved the Uchiha. And she was a baka who knew that he was jealous, had known of his jealousy ever since she first began to tell him of her "affection" for Sasuke-kun, but refused to tell him the truth.
She loved Shikamaru. She loved the shadow user long before Sasuke had ever been approached by Orochimaru much less ran away to join him. But she knew that to speak of her feelings, to embrace her love for him, would destroy them both. He was a genius meant to be used for whatever service Konoha required, one of Konoha's greatest chief strategists in the making. He didn't need someone distracting him from such a important task. And she– she couldn't bear it if her heart were ever broken for real. She couldn't bear to go through what Sakura now went through night after night. So Ino continued to say nothing.
"Baka," she whispered again in condemnation to the shadows.
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Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit. – Baltasar Gracian
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AN: So… should I sequel it or leave it as is? Check my profile to find out more concerning potential updates.