Chapter Two
"He's come out for meals and been on two singular missions, but other than that… it's like he doesn't exist. We haven't heard him speak in nearly a month." The voice slipped through Shikamaru's subconscious. The voice sounded vaguely familiar from through his pillow and he barely wondered who it might be. "I feel like I don't have a son anymore." The voice caught with emotion and his brain told him that was uncharacteristic for whoever was speaking. Oh, he thought, my mother. He rolled over, away from the light that came through the paper coverings on his window.
"Do you know what happened before he started this?" It was another female voice; slightly shrill through its business-like tone, as if the owner was panicking under a calm façade. Shikamaru pulled the blanket up over his head: anything to drown out the noise.
"He returned from Suna and went straight to bed. We didn't even know he was home until he starting mumbling in his sleep when Shikaku walked by." There was a sigh that punctuated the end of this statement. "I wish he knew how worried his father and I are worried about him."
"We're just as worried," said the other female voice, slightly reproachful.
"I didn't mean to suggest that you and Chouji don't care," Yoshino said. "Perhaps if we wrote to Temari, she would consider coming to get him out of bed." Shikamaru did not care to comprehend any of the conversation until he heard her name, and it honestly ripped a hole through his lungs to hear. Suddenly, it occurred to him that the two women were discussing him and they thought that… he could not bear to think her name, was an antidote.
"That won't be necessary," said the other woman, anger dripping in her voice. The door to his room burst open and he was immediately aware of the bright sunlight shining up from his hardwood floor, glaring through the small hole he had left in his blanket to breathe. He felt weight on the edge of his mattress and a hand on his shoulder.
"Shikamaru?" When he felt his body being shaken slightly, he closed his eyes tighter as if to will the intruder away. The girl did not give up. "Shikamaru! I know you're awake, damnit! I didn't come here to be ignored."
Shikamaru sighed and sat up in bed, rubbing his bleary eyes. He turned and looked at the female sitting on his bed, only to be greeted by the sight of Ino Yamanaka, fully dressed in her ninja gear and looking at him with an unreadable expression on her face. Yoshino cleared her throat uneasily before turning and walking away from the awkward situation. Shikamaru just continued to sit there and try to discern the emotions crossing Ino's face. Concern, anger, guilt, and a little fear?
"Oh, Shikamaru. What did she do to you?" It was funny in a very humorless way: In just a few words from his mother and one look at his helpless countenance, Ino had summed up an idea of what had occurred, and Shikamaru was thankful for this. He did not want to explain anything. He just wanted…
"We need to get you out of this room," she said when he uncharacteristically laid his head in her lap. He sighed heavily; he would not cry, he had cried on his own and he was done with that. What was left was nothing but a shell with a painful crack in it. He would leave without complaint if she urged him to do so, but he would not be good for much else.
"Come on," she said, sitting him up so that she could rise and walk to his closet. She opened it and ticked her fingers quickly across his wardrobe. Two small metallic clangs rang through the silent room as Ino pulled a shirt and a pair of pants from their hangers. She dropped them on the bed and crossed the room to his dresser. She pulled the top drawer open and sifted through a collection of underclothes. There was a soft sound as a pair of boxers became airborne and landed on Shikamaru's head. In a different time, or different situation, Shikamaru might have laughed at this, or even yelled at Ino for going through his drawers. Now, however, he sat in a neutral silence.
"Go take a shower and get dressed," Ino said dismissively. "I trust you can still do that on your own?" Shikamaru nodded dumbly and grabbing the clothes that were strewn across his bed, took off for the bathroom. In a trained numbness that locked his jaw, he padded his way to the shower on bare feet and went through the motions of a short shower.
Not too long after he was dressed, there came a small knock at the door. He walked to it, feeling absolutely no need to use his voice. He opened it slowly, coming face-to-face with Ino as he did so. She sighed and walked into the bathroom, pushing him onto the toilet and snatching a brush off of the bathroom counter.
"Shikamaru," Ino said, running her fingers through his soft, wet hair before following with the brush. Apparently, what she had to say to him died in her throat because she just sighed again. His own came after hers; it felt nice to be clean and Ino's hands in his hair did not exactly feel bad. He found that some of his numbness was dripping off with the water from his shower. He heard the elastic sound of a hair band and then his hair was pulled tight against his scalp as Ino tied it in its typical ponytail.
"There," she said calmly. Realizing she missed a small lock of hair, she smoothed it back from his forehead. Wrapping her arms about his shoulders and resting her chin on the top of his head, she spoke. "Do you think you can pull it together to see Chouji?" Shikamaru thought about it for a moment. Chouji, his best friend in the entire world, would be just as worried, if not more, than his parents and Ino. If he should put on a happy face for anyone, it would be Chouji.
"I… suppose I can." He stood, Ino's chin falling from the top of his head, as he was slightly taller than her. She smiled and turned to leave. A feeling of gratitude swelled in his chest for a moment and he reached out to touch her arm. She turned, eyes full of questions, at the contact.
"Yes?"
"Thank you," he said. She grinned warmly and nodded before exiting the bathroom. He took a moment to look at himself in the mirror and was surprised by what he saw. All of the color he had obtained from numerous missions and trips across the desert was drained completely from his face. He was pale and thin, too. He thought back on the past week, only. He remembered eating only once, and knew that this erratic eating behavior probably stretched back to when… he shrugged and made a mental note to eat more often.
He exited the house in time to see Ino smiling up at a bird in the sky. He winced when the sunlight hit him full in the face, to Ino's amusement. She giggled to herself at his ridiculous countenance. Then, looping her arm in his, led him out of the Nara complex.
All through the village, people waved at him in happy greetings. Words and phrases like "Haven't seen you in a while!" and "Where have you been hiding?" followed him up and down the streets of Konoha. This registered as a very minor shock to him, that people had noticed his absence. He raised a hand in an unsmiling salutation to everyone who said hello to him and carried on his way, but not before jamming his hands back into his pockets.
"You might try looking a little more personable," he heard Ino whisper in his ear. "Some of these people think you had fallen ill and were worried about you." She looked at him expectantly and he tried on a small smile; It did not reach his eyes. She rolled her eyes at his feeble attempt. As he saw Sakura disappearing down another street, hand in hand with Naruto, he struggled to say something that would take his mind off of holding hands with a certain Suna kunoichi.
"How are you and Chouji?" He asked, without turning his gaze from the… Were they a new couple? Ino looked to where the inspiration for this question came from and laughed.
"We broke up a long time ago, Shikamaru."
"Why? What happened?" He asked, suddenly treading in dangerous waters in his own mind, if not in Ino's.
"Well," she laughed. "It turns out that we really weren't that interested in each other. I think it was more of a confused friendship, really. Easy come, easy go, though." She shrugged and looked up the road to their destination: the barbeque restaurant. She then chuckled and raised a hand in greeting to someone. "Speak of the devil," she said, "and the devil shall come."
Shikamaru looked up immediately to see Chouji waving happily at Ino. When Chouji made eye contact with Shikamaru, however, his hand faltered in the air and then dropped completely to his side. Shock was written all over the young man's face, and the shock soon turned into a scowl. Shikamaru stopped dead in his tracks, caught off guard by Chouji's sudden hostility.
"No, come on!" Ino said, pulling Shikamaru back to a start and arriving in front of Chouji, who was still focusing on glaring at Shikamaru. "Well, let's eat shall we?" Ino said, with an air of breaking the tension. Both males grunted their affirmation and entered the restaurant.
Twenty silent, moody minutes later, a bewildered Shikamaru sat scowling at the ceiling while an angry Chouji waited impatiently for the food to arrive. Finally, Ino slammed her fists down on the table, rattling the silverware and stood up.
"I'm going to the ladies' room! When I come back, you two better be talking!" Chakra rolled off of her in thick waves, assaulting the senses of both boys. When the last of her purple skirt disappeared around the door, Shikamaru found the strength to speak.
"What's your problem?"
"My problem? You come out of a six week silence and ask me what MY problem is?" Chouji asked, glaring across the table at his best friend.
"What did I do?"
"Well, I guess we can start at the beginning," Chouji said, beginning to raise his voice. "First, you take off to Suna without letting anyone know where you're going or why," he said.
"You and Ino were on a mission!"
"Then, you come home after only a day there and basically disappear off the map. No one hears from you for six weeks. Do you have any idea the things that have been running through my mind? And my thoughts don't even compare with Ino's! That girl doesn't cry for anything and she cried when you wouldn't come to our usual team dinner!" Chouji was shouting now and drawing the attention of every other patron in the restaurant. A knife, burning with guilt, sliced through Shikamaru's chest, irritating the crack that ran over his heart. All anger and bewilderment was gone from his blood. He hung his head and whispered his next words.
"I'm sorry." Shikamaru's sudden forfeit of the argument caught Chouji off-guard. He sat bat in his seat, and took a deep breath.
"I forgive you," Chouji said. "But what even happened-"
"I'm sorry that you had to take the weight of my absence on your shoulders, but I c-…" He took a deep shuddering breath when the sentence fell short. "I can't talk about it right now. I think Ino has an idea, so… yeah. I guess talk to her," he said, looking away as the woman in question sat down. Chouji nodded, guilt starting to settle in his own stomach.
"Okay." Silence wracked the table for a minute before Ino spoke.
"Tomorrow starts the Fire Festival, guys," she said with a smile. "We should all go together."
Shikamaru thought about it. The Fire Festival celebrated the date of when Konoha was acknowledged as an independent power in the Fire Country. The entire day was filled with a grand festival, complete with dancing, music, food, and games. After the sun set in the evening, the night sky was lit on fire with the Fire Country's biggest fireworks display, known widely as the Night of Fire. He shrugged.
"Okay," he said. "I wasn't here for the last one. Might be fun," he finished, trying and failing to forget why he had missed the last Night of Fire.
One Year Ago
"Don't peek!" She squealed impatiently as the brunette's hands fumbled at the bandana tied around his eyes. A deep laugh echoed across the room, issued from the throat of a young man in a recliner.
"Temari, how long does it take to put on a kimono? We're going to miss the fireworks display!" He called from his comfortable position in the chair. He heard a sigh.
"Don't rush me," she said. He heard the rustling of fabric draw closer to him and hands close around his. Temari pulled Shikamaru full out of the chair into a standing position. "Are you ready?" She breathed excitedly. Shikamaru nodded.
"Seeing as I have been waiting for-" But how long he had been waiting was not found out because in that moment, Temari removed the bandana and Shikamaru was left momentarily speechless. Temari was dressed, shoulder to floor, in a sweeping metallic teal kimono. It was tied at the hips with a silver sash that complimented the white and silver lilies printed all over it. Temari smirked at the look on Shikamaru's silent face.
"It seems the thinker of great thoughts has blanched," she said with a grin. She wound her arms around his neck, twirling a finger in the hair at the nape of his neck, her teal kimono meshing with his less elaborate green one. He brought up his hand to brush through her honey blonde hair, which she had left loose for this special occasion.
"This is my village, and here you are trying to show me up in appearances on Independence Day," he said with a laugh that slowly deepened. His lips lowered to meet hers, already moist and waiting. She kissed him for a moment before licking subtly at his lower lip, which immediately parted to give her access to his mouth. The hand that was softly pushing her hair back from her brow lowered to the back of her head and tangled forcefully in her hair. The arm around her waist tightened, crushing their bodies together, causing both parties' breathing to catch slightly in their throat.
"You know," Temari started when she pulled back. Shikamaru, at a loss for lips to kiss lowered his head to her neck, causing her to stumble over her words. "You could always keep that from happening by doing two things." Shikamaru's hand dropped from her hair to her shoulder where it pushed the kimono from the pale, silky skin.
"And how is that?" He whispered against her skin, lowering the kimono further to suck at her collarbone.
"Take it off of me," she said, half an offer, half a command. "And then keep me busy through the fireworks." He groaned his approval of this plan before picking her up and carrying her to his room.
