To Gaby (guest): I was away on vacations, but now I'm back to updating, no worries. :) Thank you for your review! ^_^
I feel like my chapters are getting longer and longer... lol. Anyway, enjoy, guys! :)
-X-
The room was eerily still, half-darkness, half-light.
Naruto woke up disoriented, his right arm numb and swinging outside of bed. He grunted as his vision cleared. Around him, part of the room flickered in and out of the darkness with the wind agitating the beige curtains. Everything was unfamiliar around him. Wide-eyed, he bolted in a sitting position, grasping, clawing at the air where his alarm clock would have been. Jolts and numbed shocks ran up his right arm and he grimaced as it curled back to his side. Naruto blinked, massaging his stiff arm until the blood circulation was back. Until he recognized the flowery wallpaper. And he winced when all the pieces fell back into place; Sasuke's car, the desert, and Ino. Sakura and Sasuke flashed through his mind. Ino's cellphone was on his night table, but she was gone.
"Oi, Ino!"
Naruto roughly pushed back the heavy blankets and jumped out of the bed. A dreadful feeling setting in his stomach, his head whipped in all direction. No one answered him. The bathroom blinked in the receding darkness, ranking faintly of humidity. Ino's bed was unmade, but her purse was gone.
"Oh shit!" He muttered and his tics moved his mouth, his skin moist as he reached for his pants on the floor. He felt his pockets, desperate, still whispering to himself, uncontrollably. The back of his neck prickled, he never controlled anything. He never saw anything coming until it was too late.
"Shit, shit, shit!"
Naruto panted, frozen, his fist still clenching the empty pockets in the middle of the deserted room. He was nowhere, with no money, no car. Abandoned. He was abandoned. His mind leaped, rushed to his parents' death, to his childhood where he had no one. To Sasuke, to Sakura who also left him in the dark, left him behind, together, untangled. All jumbled pieces. All pain. A bunch in the gut no air.
The phone rang, abruptly, piercing, severing Naruto's chain of thoughts. De snapped back to reality. He scrambled toward the buzzing cellphone on the night table and he flinched when his knee buckled against the bed frame. Cursing under his breath, he finally grabbed the phone, its light blinked with an unknown number. Naruto tried twice to unlock the screen before he wiped the phone, his hands, hurriedly, on his pants. Always the rush, always the mutters he couldn't control. He unlocked the phone.
"Are you finally awake?" Ino's voice sounded exasperated, but he forced a breath out like a castaway reaching land.
"Where-where are you?" He clutched the phone to his ear.
"At the dinner down the street, the one we were at yesterday. I got us a change of clothes. You sound out of it. Are you okay? I mean, you were definitely out of it. I have been calling you for the last 2 hours or so."
"I'm sorry," He rushed through the words. "I always sleep in late... My bad."
He sank on the edge of the bed, nothing but static silence on the side of the line.
"Well, Naruto?"
"Huh? What?"
"Are you coming to meet me or not?"
Naruto grinned, scratching the back of his neck, even if she couldn't see him. He felt himself retreat, his mind slowly leaping back, detached from loneliness. He thought of Jiraiya and Iruka, the ones that changed him, waited for him. It would be so easy to be lured by his old anger; it always burned beneath his skin, toxic and squirming as if alive.
"Naruto?"
The phone pressed between his shoulder and ear, he pulled his pants back on.
"Yeah! Give me five!"
-X-
First light out
by Clementive
-X-
Above the door, the bell swung forcefully when Naruto entered the dinner.
He spotted Ino sitting in the same booth. She wore her hair down, her face half hidden. She read the newspaper lying flatly in front of her, her slim fingers circling her coffee mug, frowning. Naruto waved, and when she didn't look up, he leaned over the counter to order coffee for himself. At the sound of his steps, she looked up, and slid the newspaper farther away on the table with the tips of her manicured fingers.
"Finally!" She snapped.
He slid on the booth, grinning, and his eyes moved furtively across her face to catch a glimpse of what happened yesterday. Her face was guarded, concealer, mascara and lipstick masking the hours she had stared at the ceiling listening to his breathing. She wore make-up like a flawless, impenetrable mask.
"Good morning! Here's your phone back."
"Thanks."
Ino took the phone, gracefully, setting it back in her purse without looking at it. Naruto opened his mouth, but she shoved a paper bag in his arms before he could speak. Still, he looked at her, wondering how could her movements always be this calculated, from hairdryer to paper bags. Everything was a plan to protect herself, her mind as impenetrable as her face.
"Now put those on." She waved him off. Her small nose wrinkled in disgust as she held her hand over her mouth. "Honestly, your clothes reek."
He flinched, then smiled, grateful and embarrassed.
"I travelled non-stop for two days-" He paused, blushing, when he looked inside the bag. "You bought me boxers?"
"Normal people would be thankful." Ino smirked and flipped her hair over her shoulder, lowering it, accentuating its curve out of habit. He didn't notice. He didn't look up. Slowly, she leaned back against the booth, her hand against her throat, while he still rummaged inside the bag. He unfolded the white t-shirt, held it up in front of him before turning his gaze to her.
"You didn't need to do this," He said slowly.
"Yeah, well, you would have chosen something with orange or toads," She shrugged, her mouth twisted. "I couldn't have that."
"Toads?"
"You kept muttering about toads in your sleep." She shrugged, her fingers tapping slowly against her mug.
"Yeah... I lived near a swamp at some point. I probably played with toads too much when I was a kid. My foster dad used to scare me by saying I would turn into one eventually. For the records, I never did. I didn't have warts either, it's all a myth! But the skin behind their ears? Man, that irritated my skin at least a dozen times before I caught on..." Naruto clasped his mouth shut, as she raised a brow at him. "Sorry, I talk too much..."
"It's fine." She said quickly and he paused, once more searching her face.
"True," He finally said with a grin. "You talk a lot too."
"Just go change your clothes." She rolled her eyes when he mocked a military salute before sliding out of the booth, leather squishing under his shifting weight.
Once he was gone, her fingers spun the disregarded newspaper back toward her. She turned back to the page where a small square with less than five lines detailed her failed engagement. It was squeezed between the critics of a new album by Killer B and the announcement of a new book by erotic author Kakashi Hatake.
They called her Model Ino Yamanaka, as if she was nothing else. They called Shikamaru, a genius in the world of Go and chess, as if he was everything and beyond. Nowhere did it mention, she was also a medical student. Nowhere did it mention, how hard she worked, how modelling was only a means to an end. To them, she was beautiful and could be condensed in five lines where her intellect, contrasted to Shikamaru's, could be ridiculed. Neatly, she ripped out the piece.
Slowly, she fisted the article, crumbling it in a messy ball that she tossed in her purse.
To her, beauty was just a temporary mask, a means to an end. Underneath, anger seethed, hot, poignant, because she was so much more than that. She brought her mug to her lips, her smile gliding back into place.
After all, she knew better than anyone that revenge was a plate best served cold.
"How do I look?" Half-turned toward him, she startled wondering how long he had been standing behind her.
Naruto smiled wide, his arms open, then dropped them, his fists now to his hips.
"I have good taste," Her voice, her smile, had an edge, and he pretended not to notice.
-X-
They drove across the desert.
Hot air rolled in the car, her hair whipped back against the wind. It floated around her turned head, a crown of alternatively limp and stiff shiny locks. Next to her, Naruto sang, loud, often stumbling onto words, his fingers drumming against the wheel. Already, the village was hidden behind golden hills and sparse rocky mountains. They didn't glance back once. The sky was as golden as the sand and the old Ford seemed to glide across thin clouds of dust.
"Do you know only boy camp songs?" Ino asked exasperated even if she was now used to his energy.
"What?" He pouted, his eyes smoothly moving from the road ahead and her, still turned toward the window. "They are catchy and my kids love them!"
"I'm not your kid, Naruto." She shifted in her seat. The material stuck to her skin, moist and rough with her sweat. When she finally looked over at him, he seemed undisturbed by the heat.
"I know that," Naruto said sheepishly. "Just old habits die hard, you know?" He fumbled with the buttons of the radio, but the white noise persisted, thick and broken by interrupted words and broken melodies. "Sorry, I think we are too far off the grid, so you'll have to deal with my singing some more."
She looked out the window once more and she smiled. He gave a sharp turn with the wheel, and abruptly, she was unbalanced, gripping the handle above her head.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Toward the mountains," he smiled toothily, like a child, and her eyes widened, her teeth clenched. Repetitively, the car shook.
"You're insane!" She yelled above the chaos of the desert and the increasing throbbing of the engine. Beneath them, the tires cried and squealed, as Naruto and Ino jolted, up and down. He yelled like a cowboy and she coughed, the dust thicker in the inlands.
Then, it all stopped. She glanced side-ways at him, her hand pressed against her mouth and nose.
"This was fun!" Naruto reached over and gripped her shoulders, shaking her without force. He laughed loudly, hitting the wheel. "Let's do it again, but with the windows closed this time."
Ino got out of the car. Bent over, she panted, nauseous, pulling her hair out of the way. Behind her, she heard Naruto opened the car door and jogged towards her side.
"Hey! I was just kidding," He tried to push her hair out of the way, but she slapped his hand away, taking an unsteady step back. "Damn, you look green. Hey, sit down." He moved her back toward her car seat and this time she didn't resist. He crouched down in front of her, holding up a water bottle.
"I'm fine. It's passed."
"Great!" Naruto punched the air, still crouched down, and Ino glanced up at the crooked mountains, almost barren, eaten by short yellowish vegetation. Near the top, patches of greenery and trees were sparse. "We have got some climbing to do."
She grunted, straightening back her back.
"Of course, you couldn't possibly mean to get the flower from a florist. That would have been too easy. Too normal." She looked at him pointedly and stood up again, her hands brushing off the sand and dust from her shorts. "So, I got us hiking boots. They are in the trunk."
Ino moved past him.
"You're really smart, aren't you?" He said lowly and he felt he was walking in a narrow tunnel with only a beam of light ahead. Focused on his goal, focused on reaching the light, he walked, blind to everything else around him.
"What?" She paused, her hand resting on the trunk, the sweat already gathering at her hairline.
"You think ahead," He said simply, his hands rigid on the water bottle he held. He seemed to look past her and for a second she felt the urge to look over her shoulder. No one had ever called her smart. She looked down at her hand on the handle and her hair framed her face, partly veiling it. She shook her head briskly.
He didn't know her.
It didn't matter what he thought because he was hopeful while she was broken.
"Don't be sentimental."
Ino looked up with hardened eyes, her hands pulling back her hair and tying it back into a long ponytail. Forcefully, she opened the trunk, her pale face rigid and expressionless.
"Now, let's finish your love quest."
Naruto caught the bag she tossed at him. His smile spread slowly.
"You're getting pumped, aren't you? It's like we are on the verge of the biggest adventure of our lives."
She snorted and slipped out of her sandals. He kicked his shoes off, already pulling loose the shoelaces of the boots. He winked at her, unbalanced, as he pulled the first boot on.
"Just admit, you're getting caught on the moment."
"What did I just say about getting sentimental?" She growled, but she already knew how entangled she was in his enthusiasm, his smiles, his will not to give up. Because she wished she was all that. She wished she could let go of her anger, memories of Shikamaru that assaulted, suffocated her in a perpetual feeling of uselessness.
Naruto jumped next to her, his thumb up.
"Alrightieeee!" He shouted, pointing with his thumb at the top of the mountain. "Let's climb that mountain."
As they approached, Ino saw that hiking trails were carved in the stone, framed by slim strings. The trail twisted around the small mountain, uneven and blazing in the sun. When they started climbing, she clenched her teeth, her footing unsteady. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. The top seemed even farther away.
They advanced slowly for an hour, before Ino looked back down. The car appeared like a black toy in the distance, disregarded in the desert. She panted and squinted in the direction of the village they had left. She saw nothing. She turned back toward the trail and almost walked onto Naruto. Swiftly, he caught her arm to steady her.
"Hey! Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
His skin felt as hot, as moist as hers. He let go slowly, spreading his fingers in front of him to appear unthreatening. His smile was blinding, but his eyes were serious, deep blue locked onto hers. Ino broke away first, unsettled.
"What's the big deal with this flower, anyway?" She asked and he looked down at the car.
"It's her name. It's everything she is to me and to everyone around her. If she could just remember..." His body shook, his gaze on his clenched fist he held near his face as if he were testing his strength. "If she could acknowledge it then she would know that I care about her more than that bastard could ever do. I won't give up without a fight. Hell, I won't give up at all! Believe it!"
Stiffly, Naruto turned back to the trail and began climbing again.
Ino watched his tensed back, feeling little, insignificant, crushed as he aimed higher, and climbed and climbed. And she remained behind. And she still hesitated to follow him. At the top, there would still be nothing for her. Even being here, with him, there was nothing for her.
She was running away. She always ran away.
She withdrew her phone from her pocket. She sucked a trembling breath in as she played the voicemail.
"Hey, it's me... Can you take care of the wedding registry, troublesome woman?" He yawned and her hand stiffened around her phone. "This is such a drag... They keep sending presents to my place. Anyway, I hope you're not getting yourself into trouble or something since you disappeared." He sighed. "Just call your old man. Or call me. Or Chouji. Whatever, you never listen anyway. We're all worried, I guess."
-X-
The last time Naruto had been on this hiking trail, Sakura was by his side, telling him the story of how her parents to name her. In a low voice, she described their journey, then her journey and he never knew if she ever truly intended for him to hear. Or if she was talking to herself. Or to Sasuke. Because for the year Sasuke disappeared, Naruto was never certain how much of what she did or said was intended for him and him alone. He shared her with memories of the three of them together. He shared her with a ghost. A ghost he promised to bring back to her. And at each step up the trail, he had then hesitated between reaching for her or letting her go.
He had loved her enough to be selfless. But he couldn't give her up. Not then, not now.
"Hey, do you mind if I sing another of my kids' song? There's one that just fits this landscape!" He looked over his shoulder, but the trail was empty.
"Huh? If you're pranking me..." His voice fell flat on his surrounding, it was already too late. The back of his neck prickled, the buzzing of insects and his throbbing heart, now deafening.
The sounds of her steps faded, branches and rocks rolling below, worn clashes. Naruto stood, frozen, one foot on a rock, confused and panting, and swiftly searching across the rocks and the bushes for a glimpse of blond hair or purple tank top. He carefully leaned over the edge and he saw Ino walking back down, a swaying miniature human taking cautious steps. He yelled after her but the dryness and the forest didn't sustain the echo, they muffled, quenched his voice into a weak whisper. He ran a hand over his face, hesitating between the top mountain and Ino.
His throat closed up, dry and painful.
Cursing loudly, he turned back to the bottom, his heart heavy and his mind yelling as loudly as the wind. What was he doing? What was he hoping for, half-way up or was it half-way down? He remembered the trail, the mountain, the streaks of green amid gold and yellow as magical. Maybe it had been because he had stood near Sakura. Maybe because that time, she never mentioned Sasuke. Around him, now, the mountain creaked, empty and hollow.
"I'll be back," Naruto shouted to the rustling leaves, screeching bushes, almost hoping for a sign.
Nothing answered him.
"INO!"
She had reached the bottom of the mountain, a dark daunting dash on an even canvas.
He ran down the mountain, dust rising around him with each step, like an incantation.
Naruto almost tripped over a rock when he reached the bottom. His chest exploded, his face, red, dripping with sweat. He bent over his knees, puffing and spitting, and she didn't move. She stood, straight, all angles, her fists clenched at her sides. She shone, like a scorching shadow in the sun.
"Oi! You just can't give up like that! Come on, it's not that hard. I have an endless-" He hesitated because she still wouldn't move. Her face was still turned up toward the sun, blinding and muscles quivered, beneath her skin.
"Hey, Ino..." Naruto laughed nervously, straightening up slowly. "Don't take this the wrong way but you look hella scary."
"Give me the car keys," Ino ordered coldly, in a reedy voice, her lips barely moving. She held up a hand toward him.
Shaking his head, he dug in his pockets for the keys.
"Huh, okay... Listen." He pressed the keys to her palm wishing for her to turn toward him. Or talk to him.
She moved away from him, stiffly, suddenly, fast, limbs crashing onto themselves. He wanted to reach for her arm, but he feared that if he touched her, she would sever, polished sand and rain. At once brittle and hard. He stood in front of her, his hands up, pleading her with his eyes.
"Ino... Please, talk to me."
She skirted him, not once slowing down. Her piercing eyes swept past him as if she couldn't see him and they reached the car, him, hesitant and desperate, and her, still vacantly moving. She roughly unlocked the car.
"Get in."
He opened the door quickly, when he saw her starting the engine. Looking at her, he closed the door.
"Ino... Please. I mean you look-"
She drove fast, hitting the brakes and the pedal, hard, her expression carved in stone. The dust and sand rose and whipped at them. Calmly, Ino rolled her window back up, one careless hand on the wheel. Naruto coughed and his fingers closing and slipping on the car door. Finally, he succeeded in shutting the window, but his throat and eyes stung.
They hit back the road, tires screeching, the engine protesting loudly.
"Holy Moses!" He yelped, gripping the dashboard with quivering fingers. "I understand that you want to take this bad boy for a spin, but I'M FEARING FOR MY LIFE!" She turned the wheel violently, jumping across lanes to bypass a slower car. "INO, WHAT THE HELL?" Wide-eyed, he stared at her, his mouth agape.
"I'm sorry, am I being troublesome?" Ino asked lowly, her knuckles whitening around the wheel.
Ino had been standing in the darkness of her mind for too long. She couldn't break through. She couldn't see the light, the end of anger, the end of guilt and resentment. They all built up faster inside her because inside her head 'troublesome woman' was a long-lasting echo. She wanted revenge. She wanted peace. She wanted everything and nothing all at once.
"What?" Naruto's voice, his pants, the rigidity of his body turned toward her, washed over her, ignored.
Restlessly, she accelerated. She would never feel liberated, she realized, heartbroken, because the word troublesome still chained her to her failed engagement, to a man who cared for her as a friend, but let her down as a lover. And she took it. Time after time, she took it even if she knew it didn't, wouldn't work.
She snarled and the needle of the speedometer moved up again.
"I'm not troublesome." She forced out through clenched teeth to herself.
"Okay, okay, you're not! Now, can you please, pretty please slow down?"
The police sirens erupted behind them, the image of the police of car, blurry and faded, quaking in the heat.
"Oh shit."
-X-
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