Rain

Chapter 4

AN: sorry for the long wait! I didn't get too much reviews and it made me lose the will to write. sighs dramatically anyways! Thanks to all who reviewed! I love ya to death! Now on with the story!

Uzuki-sensei smiles cattily as she jumps down between Tenten and myself. "I know I know. I think I can help you two get your guys though. I just thought up the perfect plan!"

I felt my heart skip a beat as I swallowed hard. What could it be? What could she be thinking? And more importantly, why didn't she tell me this sooner?! "Well?! What is it?!" I yelled being unable to hold in my excitement.

"Have patience, Ino! Tenten!" Uzuki-sensei exclaimed making Tenten jump slightly, "Gai and the rest of your team is waiting for you in, as he said 'the usual spot.' you shouldn't make him wait any longer."

"Oh no… I forgot about the meeting today… I guess I'll go…"

"That would be best, I'll contact you when the time is right and your secret's safe with me," Uzuki-sensei smiles calmly.

Tenten nods and jumps away umbrella and all. I couldn't help but envy how fast she is, I assume Gai-sensei does a lot of speed training because Lee and Neji need it, but wow. What really amazes me is how she keeps her legs looking so great! One would think that lots of running would build muscles on ones leg, but hers look like they did when I first saw her.

Oh geez, look at me, I'm thinking so much about that that I totally forgot about Uzuki-sensei's plan! "Uzuki-sensei! Why did you send her away?" I say putting my hands on my hips.

"Because I needed to talk to you privately, silly!!! The way you told your story to Tenten made it seem like you've been chasing him for a while," she says looking at me suspiciously.

"Um yeah… about that…" I mumble brushing my wet hair out of my face.

"Ino," not only did her voice change, but her whole body language said that this was something serious, "I need to know if you truly have feelings for this boy."

"Uzuki-sensei? W-what a ridiculous thing to say! Why would you doubt them?"

"Wasn't it just yesterday that you were telling me that you had no feelings for this boy? Didn't I have to force you into talking to him? Why did you change your mind so suddenly?" she asks as she stares at me with her cold violet eyes. I look away from her hoping that the rain would make it so she can't see my face so easily.

How am I supposed to reply to that? What does she expect me to say? Why's she being so serious about this anyway? Argh, this is so confusing… Uzuki-sensei can be so cold sometimes.

"Ino, I'm not being mean to you, you must understand that I'm doing this so no one gets hurt. You must see it from my position: You haven't seen him in years and once you do you think you're head over heels in love with the guy? It just seems like you're acting like a kid that's received a new toy or pet. I need to make sure that you're not seeing him like that, that a week or two from now, you still feel the way you do."

"Uzuki-sensei…" I finally managed to get a word in and it comes out sounding pathetic… just great.

She smiles slightly at me and puts a hand on my shoulder, "Just think what I said over, alright? Remember! 7 o'clock sharp tomorrow morning!" She then punches me and jumps off.

I sigh as I decide to get out of this park. I let my feet walk and take me where they want, it would be rude of me not to think about what Uzuki said, but how could I forget? I haven't ever seen her so concerned about something other than a mission. Maybe she sees something in me that reminded me of her. She did say that she acted like me a lot when she was a child… Maybe she saw Hayate like I did and maybe she broke his heart or something…

Why am I thinking about Uzuki-sensei's love life when I should be thinking about mine?! I don't want to subconsciously see Shikamaru as a new toy, I know that much. Why am I suddenly able to see myself having a future with Shikamaru? Maybe I AM just obsessing over him because he's "new…"

I sigh again as I stop and look where I'm at. "The meadow…." I mumble as I take in the scenery. I always thought this place was beautiful, but now… Now they're just breathtaking. It's amazing how bright the green stands out against the dark gray rain. But… why am I here?

I decided that thinking about this too much would be pointless so I walk to the top of the tallest hill and lay down. My back pouch was bothering me so I untied it from my belt and placed it under my head, as I moved to do so I heard something fall out. So I get up and look around only to find the tile from last night.

I blush lightly as I pick it up tenderly as I almost relived the moment Shikamaru placed it into my hand. I sigh lovingly as I lay back onto the wet grass. I lift the tile up and face the letters towards me. It was the 'Queen' tile, I remember in our game he did everything he could to protect both the king and queen… I understand why he would try to keep it safe, it's pretty powerful, but why give ME this piece…

If I ask him why he gave me this one I wonder if he'd say something like: "Because Ino… you are my queen!" I instantly burst out laughing after this thought. Like Shikamaru would say something as corny as that, besides, I bet he'd say something smarter and a whole lot cooler. You can never really tell with Shikamaru, he'd always just end up surprising you.

I get up and look around again. I chuckle. This is the spot I normally found Shikamaru cloud watching. Argh, is it just me or am I thinking about Shikamaru a whole lot lately? OH NO! what if I'm slowly becoming one of those annoying obsessed chicks that everything they see and do become referenced to the guy they're in love with?!

A cold wind came rushing at the meadow that sent chills down my spine. Maybe I should get home soon. It's pretty dark now and I feel as though I need to do something tomorrow… Uzuki said something about meeting up at 7 but we're not going to train… What's 7 tomorrow…? I gasp as my eyes widen. I forgot about our mission! Aw crap.

Path to (insert village/town here) 1:28 am.

This has to be, by far, the worse walk to a mission… ever. Uzuki-sensei and I have been walking this damnable path for about 6 hours straight! Sure it would have been fine but she hasn't said a word to me, heck, she barely said anything when she briefed me about this mission! AND we didn't even have lunch yet! And the unpleasantness continues! It's not raining here! Most of our missions are fun and exciting because we talk so much, but this is just so boring it's driving me crazy!!!

"ARRRRGH! Uzuki-sensei!!!!" I scream nearly pulling my hair out. She looks at me surprised. "I'm so bored… please say something! I'm sorry for whatever I did but, c'mon!" I say holding my hands up in defeat.

"THANK YOU!" she says loudly then engulfs me in a very girly hug, "I thought you wanted to think about what I talked about yesterday so I kept my mouth shut, but I'm so bored as well!" her happy aura then changes back into the creepy serious one she had last night. "You did think about what I said riiight?" she glares.

"I did… and…" I sigh as I start to play with my bang, "I realized that I feel different whenever I'm around Shikamaru… and it's not that I feel different in a bad way. I mean… my… um, what I'm trying to say. Hmmm… I don't know what I'm trying to say, but I always feel like I need to look good when I'm going to see him… and my heart tends to speed up whenever I'm near him and, even though he makes me feel a little bit nervous, I feel relaxed… Gawd, I don't even know what I'm saying anymore…" I say trying to hide my blush.

"Hahaha, sounds like my little girl's growing up to be a fine ninja!" she laughs hitting my back playfully.

"So are you going to tell me your plan yet?" I say eyeing her weirdly.

She laughed nervously then looked around, "hey, aren't you hungry? Let's eat lunch! While walking!"

"Uzuki-sensei…" I glared at her then something hit me, "Why does it seem like we've been walking non-stop?"

"Weeeell, I thought that you'd want to get this mission over with as soon as possible, Tsunade-sama said that the estimated time that we would be back in Konoha was 4 days, but if we continue to walk at this pace, we'll be back a half day shorter!" she explained as she takes out her lunch.

"OH NO! we have to get this over with quickly then!!! Why are we walking?!" I yell as I just barely remember Shikamaru's wish of me waiting for him to come back. Argh, we better book it! I could hear Uzuki-sensei laugh as sprint towards (insert place here)

5 days later, Konoha.

Argh! Why do things have to take so long?! All we had to do was deliver a letter and we had to go through so much crap! I punch a tree leaving a huge dent in it.

"Don't take your frustrations out on the scenery, Ino!" Uzuki-sensei said grabbing my arms, "I'll report back to Tsunade-sama. You, need to relax. I'll see you later," she said letting me go and walking in the direction of the hokage's office.

I sigh as I walk into Konoha again. I wonder where Shikamaru is… I hope he's not on another mission already. Knowing him, he's probably off doing a life threatening mission. Oh no! what if he's on a mission in Suna? What if he and Temari finally decide to…

NO! You need to think positive Ino! Maybe, his team is also running late so it doesn't seem like I didn't wait for him. But… knowing Shikamaru, he'd probably make it so his mission would only take 3 days. I mean, when he puts his mind to something he'll do it. But it's not like he wants to see me THAT badly… why would he?

"AH! That's not thinking positively, Ino!" I scold myself as I hit my head repeatedly. Ok! Okay… Heh, I bet he's going to be in the first place I look or, he'll find me when I least expect it… yeah… sure… that's it… GAWD how stupid am I?! I never thought this thinking positively crap was going to be so damn hard! How the hell does Naruto do it all the time?

'But Ino! You've got to see the silver lining AROUND the beautiful white fluffy cloud!' some dramatic part of me says in my head.

I hate white clouds! I don't even like looking at them, much less try and find a "sliver lining!" Argh. Now I'm arguing with myself. That's right folks. I'm either crazy or I have too much time on my hands…

I sigh once more as I punch a near-by tree. I really should be getting to the shop soon… but who the hell's going to buy flowers in this weather!? I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but it's raining sheets.

Yamanaka Flower Shop

The Yamanaka Flower Shop is closed for the day. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I could feel my eye twitch as I read the sign on my door. And to make things worse… this is one of the few times that I forgot my keys… I bang on the door and scream out for my parents, but just my luck, they aren't home. Sure I could just break in but the last time I did that, my father nearly killed me.

"What would my family be doing at this time anyways…?" I ask myself aloud because I damn well can and will. I place my right hand under my chin and think for a second. The rain seemed to want to tell me but, sadly, I don't speak rain so it sounded like… well… the rain. ;;

This is going to be a tough nut to crack… Welp, let's bring up the little known fact about my rents: they're the type that think just because it's raining that they should just stay home and do nothing; so what would they do out now?! I mean, they don't even like to go out with their friends unless…!

"AH-HA!" I exclaimed as I remembered the one thing my family would be doing out in a rainy day. "It's decided! My new mission is to find my parents and get home to rest! I will complete this noble mission even if it costs me my life!" I yell dramatically to the clouds above me. I must look like an idiot, but it's not like I care much about what anyone thinks of me.

Nara Forest (AN: or whatever the hell the Nara's call the forest that they keep their deer in)

"Why's it so hard to find my damn parents?!" I yell out of frustration. I was standing in front of the Nara main house screaming bloody murder at it. I knew no one was in there, it's just bad to keep things locked up inside, ya know?

I roughly wipe my bangs and extra water away from my eyes as I glare at the forest behind the house. There's supposed to be a barn somewhere in there but I have no idea where. The fact that I've never been in the forest kind of scares me since they may have set up traps all over the place to stop people from getting to their precious deer. I don't want to get myself killed or seriously injured because I walked into a forest, that only the Nara clan could go into, based on a hunch that I had that my parents MAY be in there. Whew, what a run on sentence!

I glare harder at the forest as I jump onto the roof of the house. I see the barn a little north east of me and that it has a path. And here I was thinking that this was going to be hard. I resist the feeling of smashing my head against a wall and run towards the deer barn.

Confused? Well the Nara's normally put the deer in the barn when it rains for more than a week so they don't get stuck in the mud and break their leg or something, my parents usually help so that's why they're here! They probably just finished herding and is just relaxing now.

I slow up my pace when I hear the familiar voices that belonged to my family and the Nara's. When I get to the barn door I knock on it politely and wait… and wait… and wait some more… I knock politely again and, again, nothing. I clench my fist as I feel a vein in my head look like it's going to pop as my eye twitch. I could hear my family laugh happily while I'm standing outside… in the cold… while knocking on the door like an idiot… twitch twitch twitch "I will not be ignored!!!" I yell as I go berserk on the door.

"Did someone hear something snap?" I hear my father ask from inside. Suddenly! Everything turned black for a second and when I was able to see again the barn door was reduced firewood and somebody was holding me, wait. Scratch that… A lot of somebody's were holding onto me.

I laugh nervously as a sweat drop appears over my head. "ehehehe… Sorry about the door…"

"Ino-chan…" I could hear Shikato say sternly behind me. I look at him with apologetic eyes as I mumble sorry over and over again. "You've gotten so strong! Amazing!" he says happily as he lets go of me.

"Hasn't she?! Uzuki's brought her home so tired out from her week long trainings that she could barely move! I'm so proud of her!" I hear my father say as he hugs me.

"Uhhh…" I say nervously as I look around. Shikato was looking at my father out of what seemed like envy. I guess Shikamaru's never came home worked so hard that he couldn't move… Lucky… and before I was able to look at everyone in the room…

"Ino! When did you get here? Did you just get home?" he said turning me so that I was facing him.

"Um yeah, but you and mom weren't there so I went to look for you because I don't have my keys," I explain trailing off. I don't know why but I feel very annoyed for some odd reason.

"Oh, it's a good thing you didn't go inside, we just painted the house and we can't open the doors and windows so we're staying at the Nara's until the fumes die down. I could have sworn I told you this before you left…" mom said trailing off. I feel my eye twitch again, but before I could yell at my parents for being stupid:

"Ino! Why're you so wet?! Did you walk all the way here without an umbrella?! You should get changed before you catch a cold!" Shikamaru's mom said from behind me. Now where did she come from?

"Um… I-it's alright Mrs. Nara. I'll be fine-"

"Nonsense! You get to my house this instant and take a nice hot bath!" she said then turns to her left, "Shikamaru! Give her a change of clothes and heat up the bath for her!"

"But Mrs. Nara! It's ok!" I say not wanting to get out of my clothes. Wait.. Did she just say "Shikamaru?!" oO;;

"Don't fight her, she's more stubborn than you, let's go," I hear the familiar sound of my ex-teammate next to me. I sigh in defeat as I mumble a thanks and follow Shikamaru out of the barn and towards the house.

TBC.

AN: please don't hate me! And please, oh, please review! It motivates me!