A/N: To answer your
questions and reply to your reviews:
Thank you guys so much for
giving me your comments and booster-ups! I feel so much better about
my writing now! I pity Hinata right now too, but life will be made
fair, (I know that life's not supposed to be fair, but I'm the
writer darnit, and I WILL MAKE IT FAIR!!). Things are a bit different
with werewolves, so the answer is no, Tenten is not the Alpha female,
though that would be pretty rad. The reason is that most werewolf
packs are too small to have two leaders, but Sasuke is the Beta. I
tried to squeeze a little SasuSaku into a basically NaruHina chapter,
but I find that's harder to do than it looks…
If this chapter is bad, then it's because I'm bad at playing out Ino. Enjoy anyways, though!
-
Traveling Moon,
Fang Phase:
Envy
-
"We're about to waste thousands of dollars of peoples' tax money. We might as well spell the note right."
-Déjà vu
-
"Shikamaru, what were you thinking?!"
Nara Shikamaru looked weary and annoyed as he muttered, "Troublesome woman," and moved to kick off his muddy rain boots. It was pouring outside, with a backdrop of a stormy sky and clouds that looked indecisive about whether to rage or to trickle.
Ino blew a strand of platinum blonde hair out of her face, and rested her hands onto her hips. "Don't give me that crap! You just broke wolf law! You can't just shrug that off, you know. You've got reckoning with Neji."
Shikamaru at last turned his head up to face his furious childhood friend. "Ino…"
"Don't you 'Ino' me! What were you thinking? She's not even part of the pack!" she screamed, looking on the verge of tears. Shikamaru looked at her oddly, and replied, "Ai, ai, woman! What's this about Temari? I went with the entire pack, you know."
Ino caught her mistake in time, and shrank back slightly, quieting down. "Well, why did you go with them anyways?"
Shikamaru sighed. "Well, somebody needed to watch them if they were going to go hunting. None of them had…changed…for a month, and that's even more dangerous than hunting on another pack's territory. You, of all people, should know how a werewolf gets if they haven't exercised for too long."
Now, Shika wasn't stupid. He knew that this conversation was about as much about werewolf law as striped yarn socks. No, this was just Ino's way of trying to talk about her own problems and venting out anger at the same time. Since when had she cared about the law?
Ino, on the other hand, was still on the verge of tears, her face sprouting patches of pink. Shikamaru gulped slightly, looking away from her exposed neck. The bloodlust of the hunt had not quite worn off, and werewolves had been known to bite another werewolf. It wasn't quite the same thing as eating a human being—it was more of a mark of dominance. However, he had a feeling that the pearly skin made him want her in more ways than one, and he didn't like it.
Ino glared at him. "Honestly, if you so much as touch me, Shika, I'll rip your throat out."
Shikamaru took a second to try and figure out whether she meant this threat literally, and finally deciding that she wouldn't dare, collapsed backward onto his own bunk. The others, evidently, were down at dinner. The werewolf side of him was full, the human side's stomach was making odd noises.
The blonde sighed as he tried to inch sideways toward the door. "Shika, I'm not done with you."
Good, she hadn't stopped using his nickname, his subconscious echoed. Then she couldn't be too mad. Not if she wanted him to still stay in their "band".
-
Ino stormed downstairs in a rage the next morning, where the four girls and two boys were going to practice in an empty dorm that Tsunade had helpfully lent them for rehearsal. It didn't help that they had one percussionist who legally sucked, a real drummer who thought he could sing, the real singer who refused to sing, and three girls who had never touched a rock instrument in their lives.
At the door to the room, Ino was surprised to see Sakura and Sasuke, engaged in what sounded like an actual conversation.
Sasuke was handsome, even Ino admitted that. His raven black hair contrasted starkly against the high, stiff-collared white shirt he was wearing with thin blue stripes running down it. He also had on a pair of dark jeans and a casual black zip-up sweatshirt. It was a sight that would make any girl swoon, but Sakura looked ready to faint, her cheeks tainted with red.
"Sasuke, we're just rehearsing for the talent show," she was explaining. Ino noted she was still annoyed at him, dropping the "kun" suffix, "…And I don't think you would be interested."
Sasuke grunted. "Hn." He smirked, then, and leaned against the door casually. Sakura sucked in a breath, the fleeting thought that Uchiha Sasuke looked more like a master's statue than anybody possibly good flying through her mind.
The Uchiha smirked and leaned toward the cherry-haired beauty, pausing with his lips next to her earlobe, as he did so the raven locks framing his face falling forward into his eyes. "I can still play bass better than any of you," he breathed.
Sakura fell back against the wall, silent and seemingly speechless. "Good, I can come in then," Sasuke said smoothly, and pushed her aside, opening the door. Ino rushed to her friend, about to squeal in excitement.
"Come on, Saku-chan, breath in and breath out! I'm not about to give you the Heimlich maneuver, you know."
The pink-haired wolf sighed dreamily, and slid down the wall. "He's beautiful, isn't he, Ino-pig?" Ino rolled her eyes. Typical love-sick Sakura. She'd be here outside of the door for a few hours if she allowed this to continue, so she hauled her friend up to her feet and sighed, putting on what she hoped was a motherly and stern facial expression.
"Sakura, you need to learn how to play a marvelous electric guitar in about four months. I suggest that we don't waste that time on the edge of fainting." Sakura smiled sheepishly and walked through the door, which Ino held open for her.
-
Inside, it was pandemonium, but much better than anything Ino had expected.
Shikamaru and Naruto were in a heated and very loud argument about Naruto's singing voice and how Shikamaru supposedly sucked at percussion, (Ino silently admitted that Naruto had a point there), and that both of their mothers were –insert inappropriate words here-s.
Tenten was trying in vain to buckle an electric bass to herself in the right position. Hinata fumbled with the long, snaking wire of a megaphone and to find the elusive plug-in socket. The only member of their little group missing was Neji, Ino noted, and it was a sad day that the Hyuuga prodigy sank to this standard of a rock band.
The Pack Alpha had better things to do.
Sasuke was smirking at Tenten, hopelessly arrogant as he instructed her on how to properly buckle the instrument. Tenten flushed and glared at him, clicking the buckle shut with an angry snap!
The raven-haired Uchiha paid no attention to the fuming Weapons Mistress, and airily sauntered over to Sakura, and buckled her straps for her too. Sakura looked ready to faint, red as a tomato, as Sasuke's skilled fingers buckled the black strap, brushing against her shoulder and her stomach.
Ino sighed and got behind the old, out-of-key electric keyboard. The instruments had been borrowed from the local music shop in return for free tickets to the end of year party and a few hours a week working there. It wasn't a bad deal at all, but the keyboard sure could use some touching up.
Tenten wobbled around, complaining and cursing vividly. She finally righted the bass backwards, and Sakura burst out laughing. "This is pathetic," she choked out between giggles.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at their antics, calmly standing there and in complete control of his own bass. His eyebrows furrowed together as he thrummed on the 4th string, frowning as he listened for the crash of the note.
Shikamaru nudged Ino in the ribs. "Oi, Ino, could you get Naruto to realize that he can't sing?" he complained. Ino giggled slightly.
"Shika, I thought we weren't talking," she scolded, inwardly pleased that they were on speaking terms again. She hated when she and Shikamaru weren't speaking. He was one of her best friends, in a way that her girlfriends weren't, and it was awkward not sharing any greetings with him when they passed in the hall or went hunting and the voices of their Pack echoed in their minds.
Shikamaru smiled cockily at her. "Well, we're talking now. Onegai, Ino, make him stop trying to sing Phantom of the Opera, my eardrums are going to bleed," he pleaded.
Ino smiled slightly and conked Naruto hard over the head without breaking eye contact from Shikamaru. "Taken care of," she said briskly, and turned to find Naruto collapsed on the ground with a large red bump rising slowly out of his head.
"Er, drummer down."
-
Fifteen minutes later, everything was settled and everybody in position.
"Here, I got some basic music for us to play," Ino explained as she passed around copies and put the score on a desk nearby.
Sasuke smirked at the simple chord progressions on the bass page he was sharing with Tenten, but refrained from commenting. Ino was glad. She couldn't stand the Uchiha to be making fun of their less-than-basic level. In short, they stunk.
"Here," said the blonde, striking an A on the keyboard. It sounded distant.
"Er, which one's A?" Tenten asked blankly, staring hopelessly down at the myriad of strings and ridges on her instrument. Sasuke sighed, resigned, and showed Sakura and Tenten where the fingerings were.
"Sakura, play loud, OK?" Ino begged, flopping into a tall wooden chair behind the keyboard. "Two basses are going to be hard to play over."
Sakura nodded weakly, looking confused and lost.
"Oh, Kami-sama, how are we going to whip ourselves in shape in time for the End-of-Year Festival?"
-
Ino was in better spirits than she thought she would have been at the end of rehearsal time and then some. True, Sakura had managed to knock out Naruto when she turned around and the stem of her guitar hit him right between the eyes. And Hinata had barely sung one note when she ran from the room, too embarrassed to continue, and Naruto, after being revived, had to go fetch her.
And also, Shikamaru truly had no rhythm at all. Emphasis on the at all.
It was better than she had expected, however, overall, and she was the unspoken manager of the whole affair. After all, she was the one that had suggested it, and everybody was looking to her to dig them out of this sinkhole.
Dinner had been nice, she mused silently, turning the knob of their dorm. And it's perfect weather outside, at least for me: stormy, and drizzling. At nighttime. Beautiful.
The good spirits came crashing down when she opened the door.
Temari, a member of the rival pack, was crushed against one of the bed poles by none other than Shikamaru. Her face was between his palms, and they had obviously been kissing before Ino had barged in. It felt like her insides were giving out. No, the world was spinning. When had that started happening? And why did her lungs feel like they couldn't breathe anymore?
She didn't realize that she was shaking her head until Shikamaru's shocked face forced itself into her mental images.
"Ino," he stammered. "Are you alright?"
Ino just kept shaking her head as she backed out of the room slowly, still trying to breathe through the invisible corset around her ribs, still trying to steady herself on the seemingly swaying floor.
She slammed the door to his surprised expression.
And she ran.
Ino didn't know how long, didn't know where, didn't know why. She just ran, ran like she had never before. Down the stairs, past a surprised Sakura and out the front door, across a busy street, (jaywalking, she thought absently), and into the shrubbery and forest on the other side.
Without stopping, she was morphing, and for the first time since her bite, she was unaware of the sweet ache and the feral feelings sweeping through her mind. There was no time for that today. She barely felt her speed increase dramatically, the chirpings of a bird and the smell of the forest overwhelming her senses, the trees outlined in precise detail.
Her snow white paws hit the ground, the golden hairs on her back glistening and on end.
"Why me?" she was thinking desperately. There was not the familiar mumble of disjointed voices at the back of her mind during this time, this wolf form, either, because none of the others had transformed. It felt crushingly lonely, and Ino wanted to run away from it, but there was nowhere else to run.
Then, quite suddenly, there was another voice in her mind, and she felt like her privacy was being invaded.
"Ino, it's not what you think," the familiar pleading tone was desperate and hurt. Hurt, hah. How could he possibly be hurt, compared to this choking feeling in her, the shattering of her heart?
"Of course it's not what I think. It would be pleasurable if you explained, no?" was her bitingly sarcastic reply. Shikamaru's presence withdrew slightly from her conscious mind, recoiling slightly at the malice in her mind's voice.
She kept running. There was no way that he could catch up with her now. It must have been a mile at least, maybe two. She had too much of a head start. That gave her confidence.
"Can't we just talk?" he said at last, resigned to her fury.
"Oh, I forgot. We were on speaking terms again, weren't we? Think away, then," she replied coolly, trying her best to sound indifferent.
"First of all, why should you care?" he asked. Ino pulled back her lips over her fangs and snarled, ironically amused. The one question that only dobe Naruto and troublesome-woman Shikamaru could ask and expect a straight answer. It was the question that drove her over the edge, anger pooling in her insides.
It also drove her over the edge quite literally, because absorbed inside herself, Ino ran straight off the edge of the usually-familiar, low cliff at the edge of the forest.
-
"Is she awake?"
A worried voice floated somewhere above. Ino squished her eyelids together. She didn't want to wake up. The blackness was pleasant. She felt stiff.
Her eyelids flickered. A flash of pink, a dash of brown, then a quick glance at violet-black.
"H-Hinata?"
Was that her own voice, so cracked and weak?
"INO!"
Yamanaka Ino shot straight up, and then groaned, regretting it, as she felt a sharp stab of pain in her left arm. "Human again," she muttered to herself. She looked up into the three worried faces of her female friends, all crouched over her.
"Are you insane?" Tenten roared, heaving her up to her feet.
"Even for a werewolf, that jump is suicidal, woman!" Sakura scolded, dusting off Ino's dirt-encrusted clothes for her. "What made you do it?"
Hinata only gazed onto her friend's paste-white face anxiously, shifting her weight from foot to foot. Ino looked down at her toes, ashamed at her own rash actions and not really sure what to tell her friends, though they had promised her that whatever problems she had, they would listen.
"It's…a long story," she finally amended. Sakura and Hinata didn't say anything more on the way back to the orphanage, supporting Ino on either side, but Tenten walked ahead and was anything but silent.
"We found you by transforming and hearing your mind's voice. It was really a turmoil, I've got to say. It was difficult to understand anything coherent in there at all. Finally, we found you, and managed to find footholds on the way down, and saw you spread-eagled lying there and out cold."
Tenten turned and stopped abruptly, causing the other three to bump into her, and glared at Ino. "Don't you ever do that to us again, you hear?" she scolded.
Ino nodded weakly.
As they continued to progress through the damp woods, she smiled slightly.
"Who needs…Shikamaru…when I have friends like these?"
The thought didn't convince her, as it even hurt to think his name now.
A/N: What did you think? Longer, a bit of a twist…and sorry for the long update. Too much homework and icky school.