R&R


In Secret, In Silence

Author's note: Second chapter, some revision, not many changes. Enjoy! :)

Disclaimer: I write only for the sake of your entertainment as well as my own.


Chapter Two


"Your actions are questionable Hyuga Neji," his pale eyes found her own dark browns with an unwavering stare. He was not used to being reprimanded, not by her at least. He could not remember the last time, if ever, that he had been called into her for anything other than missions or a congratulations or promotion.

"Not only did you almost let the secrets of our organization out," the woman continued, "but you did nothing about it regarding that civilian... what was her name again?"

He resisted the urge to frown, knowing full well she had intentionally brought up that information to humiliate him.

"I do not know."

"You didn't even get her name? Tell me, were you distracted by her beauty Hyuga? This is a first for you," the male in question could not stop the indignant glare that marred his otherwise blank features, her words making their mark in his pride.

"Her name is Ino Yamanaka," they turned to the voice of the approaching male, his hands were in his pocket, and his hair up in his usual spiked ponytail. Though his posture remained lazy, his eyes showed a hard and serious gaze.

Her eyes widened. It suddenly made sense!

"Its nice to know someone has done their research... how is it you found this out Shikamaru? You weren't present in the mission as far as I know," the woman asked as she walked to her large mahogany desk and sat, clasping her hands together and resting her chin on them.

"After Tenten and Lee returned and explained her appearance, she seemed familiar. The building the battle took place in was also the building she works in. I looked at the surveillance tape from the helicopter and confirmed my guess."

"Miss Yamanaka... it all makes sense now. This is interesting, she never told you of her abilities?" Shikamaru frowned and shook his head.

"I did not, she never once mentioned it to me," he replied.

She nodded, trying to wrap her head around the new information. What a twist indeed.

"Does she know about you?"

"As far as she knows, I'm currently overseas working with a police department in Suna."

"I see... Well Nara, what do you recommend to do regarding your friend?"

He sighed and scratched his head.

"Troublesome... but I have an idea."


He knew it was only right that he be the one to retrieve her, she was his friend after all. Still, this would be an interesting meeting, and he knew it. After all, who knew the Yamanaka better than Shikamaru himself? They had known each other since grade school, even though they did not become close until junior high. He never once pictured her involved into what he was though. To think that all this time Ino has a secret hidden. And here he had always thought he finally had something Ino wouldn't have to ever know.

He sighed as he looked at the door in front of him. A simple white door with the number 32C that once he entered, a whole new chapter to the girl's life inside would start. He did not hesitate in raising his fist to place firm determined knocks on her door. It did not take long for the girl occupying the room to open the door with clouded eyes, as if she had her mind on something else when she opened the door. He had a pretty good idea of what that was too. However, when her eyes looked up to see her, she immediately recognized him.

"Shika!" he tried not to tense when she threw her arms over his shoulders and wrapped them around his neck. The hug was over quickly as she let go and turned to him with a huge smile on her face.

"You're back!" she suddenly frowned as if she hit a certain realization, "Shikamaru Nara! You didn't even call me! I'm you're best friend and you didn't even call me to tell me you came back, I should be pounding you into the ground right now!"

"Sheesh Ino, this is the homecoming I get? Look, can I come inside?" Ino frowned at the tone of his voice. Sure, she knew Shikamaru wasn't the most enthusiastic person around, but his tone had a hard edge to it she could not dismiss and oddly out of place, even for him. She tentatively opened the door further and stepped aside to let her longtime friend through.

"Is something wrong Shika?" Ino asked with a frown as they sat down in her living room area. She really hoped she did not need to hear something bad. Just yesterday she had discovered the world was full of inhuman people for Christ's sake! She felt as if she had someone teleported inside an action movie as the damsel in distress. She hoped nothing worse was awaiting her. This just wasn't her week.

"Ino..." Shikamaru simply did not know how to begin this and took a moment to view his surroundings in an attempt to form his thoughts. Nothing he didn't expect of Ino. The place was clean as always, with the same brown couches adding color to the otherwise white room and gray carpet. The walls were decorated with picture frames and diplomas he remembered looking at whenever he came over, some even included him. How simple life was in those pictures. What lies lay behind every image.

How was he supposed to tell her that he had been keeping something from her his entire life. That this entire time he had never been in Suna. That there was a whole life she was not aware of and would soon be a part of. This was his best friend, one that certainly could be a handful at times, but a friend nonetheless. One he never wanted to see harmed. If he continued this, danger would be around every corner. Why had he decided to even consider it? It had seemed logical, but now... seeing her in person... he almost wished he had never suggested it.

"Spit it out Shikamaru! I know you're trying to tell me something," under normal circumstances she would have used this long pause to her advantage, possibly teasing Shikamaru about what it could be he was to afraid to say. Right now this pause was suffocating. She could always choose to read his mind, but she had made a promise to herself that she would never read her best friend's mind no matter what.

He sighed.

"Do you know how I said I was helping a case in Suna. . .?" he finally spoke. Ino nodded warily, wondering where this was going.

"Well, I was never there," Ino frowned. Shikamaru... had lied? He had never lied to her before. About anything. They were that close. Or that's what she had hoped. . .

"Why?" she asked her silent question, "I mean, why did you lie?"

"Because. . . I could not tell you where I really was," he replied. She stood up.

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you that."

She suddenly remembered the male from the previous night and her mind reluctantly began to form an idea. She was almost afraid to ask.

"Where. . .?"

"Ino, what I am about to reveal to you, you must never tell anyone. Promise me," Ino bit her lip, she could see the seriousness to the situation, and she didn't like it one bit.

"I... I promise," she said. Shikamaru nodded and stood up. He walked over to the lamp that stood in the living room, and adjusted it.

"Look at my shadow," Ino did as she was told and looked down to see Shikamaru's shadow. She looked up briefly to see what the point to this was when she saw him make a sign with his hands. Her eyes widened as she noticed this, and turned her eyes back to his shadow where she saw it begin to move and stretch towards her. The shadow seemed to connect with her own feet and she suddenly found herself unable to look. She looked up to see Shikamaru staring directly at her. Slowly, he put a hand to his side, and she felt her heart speed up when her own hand imitated this movement, and not by her will.

"Shikamaru... what is this?" She managed to gasp out. She almost fell to the ground as she felt his shadow retreat.

"As you can see, I'm not what you can call normal. And as you should know, neither are you. You too have abilities that are not ordinary, am I right?"

There was a moment of pause as Ino looked down. Slowly, she nodded, still not looking up.

"How did you know?" she whispered. Shikamaru sighed.

"I didn't find out until last night, and I'm sure you remember what happened," at this Ino's head swiveled up.

"You mean...?"

"Yes, I know what happened to you," he cut her off, "I'm part of the group that you were with. Not the ones that attacked you, but the ones that helped you. Look Ino, there's not much I can tell you. It's against my code. There's a reason I'm here."

Ino found herself unable to say anything. Shikamaru had been involved in what had occurred the previous day? How was that possible. He was supposed to be a regular guy, heck even less than that with how lazy he always seemed! Now she was supposed to believe that he was also inhuman. Sure, she knew she also had weird powers not considered normal, but to think that all this time her best friend was in her shoes, and involved with some organization with more inhuman people?

"Then, why are you here?"

"I'm here to give you a proposition. . ."


"Daddy, can you tell me a bed time story?" young Ino looked up to her dad as he tucked her into bed. His long blond hair was tied into his usual ponytail, she couldn't help but hope someday her hair would be as pretty as his was.

"You know I'm not good at telling bed time stories baby girl..." he answered with a chuckle and a smile.

"Sure you can daddy, tell me about those stories with the superheroes," she stuck out her bottom lip and made it tremble, making her eyes as huge as possible, "Pretty pretty please with sugar on top?"

Her father sighed as he fell right into her trap. She looked so innocent, surrounded by countless of stuffed animals she had accumulated over the years and tucked into her pink covers. It was hard to say no to such a sight, it was so easy to give in to her requests. He hoped he could keep her this innocent, this safe. She was the reason he lived and did what he did.

"Fine baby, you know I can't resist that face, just don't get mad if its not one of those Disney stories you love so much."

"I won't!" she replied with a happy smile.

"Okay well lets see, who do you want to hear about?" he asked.

"The Yamanaka Clan of course!" Ino stated with a grin. He chuckled once more, not the least bit surprised of her request.

"Very well then. In the world of the Hidden Leaf, the Yamanaka clan was not known for their physical ability, and much of the time were not considered strong for it. But what many did not realize was that they had a bigger power than they could ever comprehend. The power of the mind. For while the body is strong, the mind is stronger. And the Yamanaka Clan had a very special power. Their abilities revolved around the mind, for they could do anything they wanted to anyone. They could read minds, they could discover memories and information, and if you were strong enough, you could take control over someones body by simply taking over their entire mind. Because of this, they were often used to find information from the enemy and were valued for it.

When a great evil came to surface, it was the Yamanaka Clan who managed to gather the last bit of information needed to defeat it. It had already been years since this war had started. It was a secret war, and many in the world did not even realize it was taking place, and that's how it was meant to be. The Yamanaka Clan had a very important mission. It was to capture the leader of the enemy, and gather all the information they could. It was dangerous. Maybe too dangerous, and it could cost them their lives. But they knew they had to do it, it was their duty and the right thing to do in order to finally win this war. So without a doubt in their mind, they accepted this mission. Only one of them was assigned, but he was not alone, as he had two other partners with him. What would you like their names to be baby girl?"

Ino smiled, liking how her dad let her pick out the names, "How about Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza?" She noticed how her dad's eyes had gone wide, and he did not say anything.

"I... I can choose other names if you want daddy..." she saw as he seemed to shake himself from his thoughts and gave her what seemed to be a forced smile.

"No baby girl... they're perfect..." he cleared his throat.

"Well, as it was, it turned to be a very hard mission. They had to travel for days before they arrived at their destination, and when they got there they had to be very careful. Unfortunately someone had known they were coming, and a great battle took place. It seemed as if they would lose this battle, but in the end, with the use of their strongest abilities, they were able to break through the enemies' defenses and find the target. Inoichi managed to extract all the information they needed and escape back to headquarters where they were able to give the information to their own leaders. In no time the Hidden Leaf had all the preparations needed to finish of the enemy and win the war, bringing peace to the land all around. Everyone was rewarded for their efforts and they all lived happily ever after. The End."

Ino giggled, "I love happy endings!"

She missed the sad smile that graced her father's features.

"Me too baby girl... now go to sleep. You got your story," Ino laid down and snuggled into her blankets and hugged her favorite stuffed animal. He kissed her on the forehead.

"Now remember, these stories are just between you and me..." Ino nodded and closed her eyes, her mind already replaying the story she had just heard. She imagined her dad, fighting evil as he ended a war that helped restored peace.

She smiled.

"Its a secret daddy."


How could it be that suddenly all those stories, that she had once thought impossible, to seem so true. She had always wondered how it was that she had the same abilities as in the stories. She had discovered these abilities at a young age, at the age she wished to forget. It was around the time that her father had died. They had said it was a car accident, but now, she questioned it. Her father had been the only one who seemed to know about these abilities, but with him gone, who was she to go to with this? After all, he had said it was between the two of them. She couldn't tell anyone about the stories he had shared with her and how she suddenly had these abilities. Even in death, she would never break such trust, the bond she had held with him. And even if she had, everyone would think she was crazy. So she kept it to herself, and continued to live normally, or as normal as she could be.

And now, here she was blindfolded and being led by her best friend into who knows where. She already felt she had been walking miles without getting anywhere, but Shikamaru had insisted she could not know where she was being taken. She had agreed to his proposition, that was, that she would meet with someone, and she would learn of the answers she had asked the day before.

She gasped as she felt herself nearly trip before she felt Shikamaru steady her.

"Careful now. It won't be long now. Just going on this elevator."

On cue, she heard the sound of elevator doors opening and she could not help but remember her episode from the day before in the elevator. She had stayed late that night to work for some papers her boss had assigned her last minute. She had stayed so late that there was no one else in the building. Out of nowhere she had heard the sound of someone crashing through the windows on her floor, and in the midst of fighting and confusion she ended up running towards the elevator while being followed.

She hoped she never had to relieve that.

It took a while to reach the floor where they were going, and she wondered just how far down or up they had gone. Her sense of direction was off after walking blind, but one thing she knew; either they were up very high, or down very low. Once the elevator stopped and they stepped off, they walked for a bit longer, the hearing of machinery and some chatter sometimes reaching her ears before she felt Shikamaru pause and she heard the sound of a door opening. They stepped through, and the door closed from behind.

She felt her blindfold be taken of and slowly she opened her eyes. And in front of her, stood the man from the previous day, and a woman with blond hair and sharp brown eyes.

"Welcome, Ino Yamanaka."


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